spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif spacer gif
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


spacer gif
     Home     Help     Feedback     Subscriptions     Archive     Search     Table of Contents    

This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by HARTLEY, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by STEPHEN, R. O.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow Articles by HARTLEY, J. C.
Right arrow Articles by STEPHEN, R. O.
Journal of Experimental Biology 147,189-202 (1989)
Published by Company of Biologists 1989

Temporal Changes in the Quality of the Song of a Bush Cricket

J. C. HARTLEY 1 and R. O. STEPHEN 2

1 Department of Zoology, University of Nottingham NG7 2RD, UK
2 Department of Physiology, University of Leicester LEI 7RH, UK

The first songs produced by newly adult Poecilimon schmidti (Fieber) are shown to be composed of pure tone bursts. At this time the file is in its pristine condition. After a week of stridulatory activity the songs of the same individual start to be contaminated with anharmonic components, arising from wear damage that occurs to the file teeth and plectrum. The disruption of the pure tone burst adds other elements to the Fourier spectra so that they now become difficult to interpret. The number of plectrum-tooth impacts, normally 2–5, also varies with ageing. Although females responded well to old males there is a possibility that the change in song quality would enable the female to discriminate between males.

Key words: Tettigoniidae, phonotaxis, stridulation, Poecilimon

Accepted on June 19, 1989






© The Company of Biologists Ltd 1989