New data on the bush-cricket Montana medvedevi (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), critically endangered in Europe (EU 28), and a comparison of its song with all known song patterns within the genus

Abstract

Montana medvedevi is reported for the first time from Serbia. New information about the distribution, morphology and song of this species is discussed. The song of M. medvedevi is different from that of all other members of the genus, all figured for comparison. Montana is quite diverse regarding the amplitude pattern of the calling song of its members (known in 15 species). Surprisingly, some Montana species seem to have two song patterns, one produced during the day and one at night.

New data on distribution of Montana striata (Kittary, 1849) (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Platycleidini) in the eastern part of the range

“…The species is recorded from SE Europe (Serbia, Romania, Moldova, Ukraine, S European Russia up to the Ural Mts.) (Vorontsovsky, 1911;Bey-Bienko, 1964;Harz, 1969;Ivković et al, 2017, Hochkirch et al, 2016, the forest-steppes and steppes of N Kazakhstan (Tarbinskij, 1925;Bey-Bienko, 1927;Childebaev & Storozhenko, 2004) and the southern part of W Siberia (Bey-Bienko, 1926, 1930Nefedov & Miram, 1939;Sergeev, 1986Sergeev, , 1991. In the Asian part of its range, the species is known only from several localities (Fig.…”

“…Zeuner (1941) included the species in the genus Montana Zeuner, 1941. After that, almost all orthopterists placed the species in this genus (Ramme, 1951;Sergeev, 1986;Massa & Fontana, 2011, and other). However, in the beginning of the 21st century, some researchers tried to associate Montana striata with Thunberg's Locusta striata (Thunberg, 1815) (Massa & Fontana, 2011;Ivković et al, 2017;Cigliano et al, 2022). In fact, Thunberg (1815: 283-284) described Locusta striata very briefly and did not mention its type locality.…”

Acoustic signalling in Orthoptera

“…However, this pattern can still vary to some extent within species. The temporal pattern of syllable intervals may differ, for example, depending on whether the song is produced during the day or at night (Hershberger, 2021;Ivkovic et al, 2017). The cricket Gryllus veletis often produces so called 'gap' pulses where intensity drops near the middle of the pulse.…”