Structures used by Nearctic stoneflies (Plecoptera) for drumming, and their relationship to behavioral pattern diversity

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There has been some co‐evolution of male ventral abdominal structure with method of producing vibrational call signals and call pattern diversity in Plecoptera. Male Antarcto‐perlaria have no specialized ventral abdominal structures and are not known to drum. Male Arctoperlaria without vesicles, lobes, knobs or hammers all produce relatively simple calls by tapping on substrate, or have derived a tremulation method of producing calls. Elongate, moveable vesicles on abdominal segment 9 are homologous structures in ancestral and some extant Euholognatha families, and are primarily associated with ancestral call patterns. Allocapnia and Taeniopteryx, that have secondarily lost vesicles, have retained the ancestral drumming pattern. The lobes, knobs and hammers of Systellognatha, that are characterized with SEM in this paper, are probably non‐homologous with vesicles of Euholognatha, and presumably have arisen independently in various families and genera. Systellognathan species with these structures have either retained ancestral, tapping call patterns, or have derived highly specialized grouped, or phased patterns or a rubbing method of signal production. Rubbing has been derived only in association with the knobs of Peltoperlidae or hammers of Perlidae. Complex drumming pattern diversity is unnecessary in females, and as expected, we have found no complex answer patterns, rubbing method of answering or specialized drumming structures in them.