Abstract
Males of the Palaearctic red cicada, Tibicina haematodes, produce calling songs that are attractive to both sexes. For the first time we (i) describe the organisation of the chorus formed by aggregating males, (ii) analysed the physical characteristics of the calling song, and (iii) used playback experiments of natural, modified, and allospecific signals to investigate the signal-recognition process. Males overlap each other's calling song and try to call first and last during a chorus, leading to what we term domino and last-word effects, respectively. The calling song consists of a two-part sequence made up of a succession of pulses. It is characterized by slow and fast amplitude modulations and three frequency bands. The structure of the signal varied among individuals in both temporal and frequency parameters. Our playback experiments showed that males make a rough analysis of frequency and duration features of the signal. They pay no attention to amplitude modulations. Because males are not capable of precise analysis, they reply to various allospecific calling songs. Females' analysis of the calling song being difficult to test, the role of this signal in sexual selection still needs to be documented.
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