Bush cricket interspecific acoustic interactions in the field (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)

Abstract

Summary Interspecific song interactions between heterospecific pairs of male bush crickets in southern France were tape-recorded, probably the first time that song modifications have been recorded under natural conditions. Platycleis intermedia (Serv.), the principal insect under study, showed types of song modification that were the same in the field as in the laboratory. Within each type, the modification was not as extreme in the field as in the laboratory. After duetting with P. affinis, P. intermedia produces tri- or hexasyllabic echemes, while at other times it is inhibited from singing by this species, as also by P. falx. Interspecific acoustic interactions are rare in the field, because differences of habitat preference usually prevent allospecific individuals with similar emissions from singing close enough together for either to have any effect on the other.