First published online December 1, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 4923-4937 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02608
Generation of extreme ultrasonics in rainforest katydids
Fernando Montealegre-Z1,*,
Glenn K. Morris2 and
Andrew C. Mason1
1 Integrative Behaviour and Neuroscience Group, Department of Life Sciences,
University of Toronto at Scarborough, 1265 Military Trail, Scarborough,
Ontario, Canada, M1C 1A4
2 Department of Biology, University of Toronto at Mississauga, 3359
Mississauga Road, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, L5L 1C6

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Fig. 1. Features of Arachnoscelis n. sp. (A) Male adult insect on human
arm (photo by D. E. Klimas); scale bar, 15 mm. (B) One calling song of
two pulse trains, more typically one train; scale bar, 20 ms. (C) High
resolution of a mid-train pulse; scale bar, 100 µs. (D) Smoothed power
spectrum of calling song. (E) ZC analysis of the pulse in D. Note how the
frequency drops for the driven cycles (black arrows), indicating a decrease in
velocity, then increases during decay (red arrow), suggesting that the scraper
has disengaged from the file (event indicated by red asterisks); note that the
file's resonant frequency is normally higher than that of the calling song.
Blue arrows show the free decay of the pulse. Q, quality factor.
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Fig. 2. Four successive frames from high-speed video relate closing wing positions
to the pulse train of Arachnoscelis n. sp. Insect faces to the right.
The anal margin of the overlying (file-bearing) left wing is marked by a red
arrow; coloured broken lines match picture and wing velocities to the
oscillogram. The wings develop a velocity before each production of a pulse
(calculated CWV below frame) and then become almost still over the
interval of pulse generation; scale bar, 5 ms. (A) CWV is at 7.1 mm
s-1; scale bar, 0.5 mm. (B) During the production of the first
pulse (compare A and B) there is no detectable movement of the wings and the
CWV drops to zero. (C) The wings close further, giving a CWV
of 14.5 mm s-1. (D) Next pulse is produced, again without
measurable displacement of the wings. Association of motionless wing intervals
with sound pulses implies scraper movement.
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Fig. 3. File morphology of Arachnoscelis n. sp. (A) Scanning electron
microphotograph shows the stridulatory file atop its transverse swollen vein.
The long white arrow gives direction of scraper travel. Scale bar, 0.2 mm. (B)
Inter-tooth distances for two specimens, the smaller animal below. Broken blue
lines show the functional region (basal half) of the file as determined from
HSV recordings of the 2003 specimen, which makes 4-5 pulses song-1.
Sound recordings of the 1966 specimen suggest that some specimens use a larger
file region, which implies the production of a larger pulse train (more
pulses), as shown in Fig.
1B.
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Fig. 6. File morphology and sound quality of two species of katydid using sustained
pure tones. (A,D) Intertooth intervals plotted in their natural sequence on
the file. (B,E) Zero-Crossing analysis of the pulse shown in C and F; red
arrows indicate increments in frequency associated with scraper-file
disengagement. (C,F) Sound pulse waveform.
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Fig. 7. Verification of our method of estimating closing wing velocity from
oscillograms (especially for species where specimens were not available for
HSV). Regression of known on estimated values indicates good agreement (see
text).
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Fig. 8. (A) Analysis of relationship between song frequency and wing speed by
ANCOVA with wing speed as the continuous variable and group membership (high
vs low frequency). Closed symbols represent high-frequency singers
(>40 kHz); open symbols, low-frequency singers (<40 kHz). (B) Same
analysis using average TSR as independent variable.
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Fig. 9. Scraper profiles and their association with two types of resonant
stridulatory mechanism: long-pulse and short-pulse. Each transverse section is
taken normal to the scraper edge. (A) Two species producing pure-tone pulses
below 40 kHz. (B) Two species producing extreme ultrasonics (>60 kHz) as
short-spaced pulse trains. Note the distinctive morphology proximad of the
scraper (red areas): the very modest extent of thinner (presumably more
flexible) wing areas in A compared with their elaboration relative to
increasingly massive veins in B. A1, A2, A3 indicate anal veins.
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Fig. 10. Schematic cross-section of stridulatory file and scraper (based on anatomy
of Arachnoscelis n. sp.) showing hypothetical mechanism of
stridulation in extreme-frequency singers. (A) Different degrees of
deformation the scraper may undergo while pausing behind a tooth in advance of
pulse production. (B) With enough bending, the scraper's shape allows release,
and it springs forward along a series of teeth lodging at the last tooth of
the series (blue asterisk). Pulse-driven oscillations (one per tooth)
indicated with broken lines, contacted teeth with red asterisks. Decay
oscillations indicated by dotted red arrows.
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© The Company of Biologists Ltd 2006