Standardisation of bioacoustic terminology for insects

Abstract

After reviewing the published literature on sound production in insects, a standardised terminology and controlled vocabularies have been created. This combined terminology has potential for use in automated identification systems, evolutionary studies, and other use cases where the synthesis of bioacoustic traits from the literature is required. An example implementation has been developed for the BioAcoustica platform. It is hoped that future development of controlled vocabularies will become a community effort.

Highly diversified circadian rhythms in the calling activity of eneopterine crickets (Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Gryllidae) from Southeast Asia

“…An echeme typically consists of a group of syllables and corresponds to a call unit in terms of communication. A syllable corresponds to the sound produced by one closing movement of the cricket forewings (Ragge & Reynolds, 1998;Baker & Chesmore, 2020). The greater the number of echemes per hour, the higher the calling activity per hour.…”

“…For Nisitrus species that produce long sequences of very short echemes (each consisting of a triplet of syllables) repeating in close tandem (Fig. 1(a)), we quantified echeme sequences (sensu Baker & Chesmore, 2020) because it corresponds more biologically functional as the call unit for communication. It is more likely that females recognise the entire echeme sequence as a call unit rather than each single echeme.…”

Acoustic signalling in Orthoptera

“…However, usage varies greatly (though attempts have been made to standardize it: see e.g. Baker and Chesmore, 2020). For example, call is frequently used instead of song, advertisement song or mating song instead of calling song, mating song instead of courtship interruption song, and rivalry or agonistic song instead of aggressive song.…”

“…Recently a standardized terminology, together with controlled vocabularies, has been proposed for insect bioacoustics, driven in part by the development of automated identification systems (Baker and Chesmore, 2020). Their terminology structure is based on three major components: echeme sequence, echeme and syllable.…”

“…In this review we generally follow the terminology used by the original authors since it is often not possible to indicate the relationship to the terms used by Baker and Chesmore (2020) and Ragge and Reynolds (1998).…”