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ISSN 2372-2517 (Online), ISSN 2372-2479 (Print) METALEPTEAMETALEPTEA THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ORTHOPTERISTS’ SOCIETY TABLE OF CONTENTS President’s Message (Clicking on an article’s title will take you By DAVID HUNTER to the desired page) President [1] PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE [email protected] [2] SOCIETY NEWS [2] Back Issues of Society Publications Avail- ear Society members, able by H. SONG [2] Polyneoptera Symposium at the Virtual ESA 2020 by D.A. WOLLER ET AL. While there has been [3] ICE 2024 will be in Kyoto, Japan by M.M. CIGLIANO a levelling off of the [3] Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute effects of COVID-19 (BPRI) - a newly funded NSF Biology Integra- in some areas, many of tion Institute by H. SONG DD [4] REGIONAL REPORTS us continue to have limitations on [4] East Europe - North and Central Asia by M.G. SERGEEV our activities and we are having to [5] Australia, New Zealand & Pacific Islands learn to adapt, much like the insects by M. KEARNEY [5] Latin America by M.E. POCCO we work on that have to adapt when [6] China by L. ZHANG faced with challenges. There has [7] India by R. BALAKRISHNAN [8] T.J. COHN GRANT REPORTS been particular disruption to our work [8] Behavioral response to multi-channel in offices or laboratories, though environmental noise: tracking noise-induced changes in daily locomotor patterns and field work has had less disruption mate attraction strategies in Acheta domes- because of COVID-19 being less ticus by N. ABATE [10] Can Kapton screening minimize the ad- common in many rural areas. And verse effects of LED light on the behavioral pattern and life history of flower visiting as I have found, many things can be Indian grasshoppers? by A. GANGULY accomplished with online meetings, [13] Altitudinal variation of Orthoptera spe- of citing other Zootaxa papers. Holger not only with work but with catching cies diversity in rice fields of central Nepal Braun sent me a letter supporting by M. SUBEDI up with colleagues, friends, and [14] Acknowledging spatiotemporal hierar- the retention of the impact factor family. chy improves locust outbreak models by D. for Zootaxa, which we circulated to LAWTON And, of course, COVID-19 has [16] OSF GRANT REPORTS members of our society, and thanks to made control of locusts more complex [16] Types of Neotropical Tetrigidae the many of you who signed the letter, (Orthoptera: Caelifera) in the Collection of than normal, with an upsurge of Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia Zootaxa has been retained on the Schistocerca gregaria from East (ANSP) by D.S.M. SILVA list of publications having an impact [19] Photographic and distributional data Africa to the India-Pakistan border of some Neotropical Orthoptera groups and factor. Colombian Phasmatodea by O.J. CADENA- region and swarms of Schistocerca The many reports of our activities in CASTAÑEDA cancellata in Argentina and [24] CONTRIBUTED ARTICLES this issue of Metaleptea demonstrate [24] The altitudinal range of Omocestus neighbouring countries. that in spite of limitations, there is viridulus in the United Kingdom by T. GAR- We have had some good news in NIDER continuing success of our work on [25] Agricultural defense of Brazil in alert that the journal Zootaxa has retained Orthoptera and related insects: it is against the possible entry of locust swarms its impact factor. The journal was by M.G. LHANO with great pleasure that I present [29] The Orthoptera Collection at MNRJ placed on the list to have its impact and the Brazilian Orthopterology by P.G.B. another excellent Metaleptea, thanks factor ended because of over-self- SOUZA DIAS once again to the tireless efforts of [32] Collecting Orthoptera in South Africa citation; apparently too many papers and Namibia amid COVID-19 by R. MARIÑO- Hojun Song and Derek Woller! PÉREZ & D. MATENAAR in the journal cite other Zootaxa [37] MEETING REPORTS papers. But it turns out that 45% of [37] VIII Brazilian Symposium of Orthoptera and I Symposium of Orthopteroid Insects by taxonomic papers on Orthoptera are P.G.B. SOUZA DIAS published in Zootaxa, so it is not [41] EDITORIAL surprising there is a “high” 43% rate Volume 40 (3) / September 2020 1 METALEPTEA Back Issues of Society Publications Available By HOJUN SONG Editor, Metaleptea [email protected] ur Society has occas- The Grasshopper Tribe The Grasshoppers Phaeopariini (Acri- (Caelifera) of Costa sionally published doidea: Romaleidae) Rica and Panama by the “Publications on by Carlos S. Carbonell C.H.F. Rowell = $25. Orthopteran Diver- = $15 The first compre- sity” series, which Example Publications hensive treatment O are available as hard- of grasshoppers O (Caelifera) of Costa copy books in limited supply for Rica and Panama. the members to purchase. Although this information can be found on our Society website, I would like to take Katydids of Costa Caribbean Crickets by this opportunity to advertise in Meta- Rica, Vol. 1. Systemat- Daniel Otte and Daniel leptea. Also, a limited number of hard ics and bioacoustics of Perez-Gelabert = $30. the cone-head katy- copies of back issues of the Journal of dids by Piotr Naskrecki The first comprehen- Orthoptera Research are also avail- = Free (just pay S&H) sive assessment of the able. To order, please visit https:// fauna of Caribbean Discusses the biology crickets to date. It orthsoc.org/publications/books/ or and taxonomy of 3 treats 585 cricket email me at [email protected]. subfamilies of Costa species, of which 458 Rican Tettigoniidae. are described as new species. Polyneoptera Symposium at the Virtual 2020 Entomological Society of America Meeting: “Small Orders, Big Ideas (Polyneoptera)” - November 11-25 By DEREK A. WOLLER1, ABIGAIL HAYES2, JOSEPH SWEENEY3, AND HOJUN SONG4 1USDA-APHIS-PPQ-Science & Technology Phoenix Lab, Phoenix, AZ, USA [email protected] 2Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA [email protected] 3Academy of Natural Sciences of Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, USA [email protected] 4Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA [email protected] olyneopteran insects to the ongoing worldwide pandemic, be presentations covering an array of (Orthoptera and nine this year’s ESA will be entirely Polyneoptera orders and intriguing other insect orders) virtual, with presentations being a topics, plus a livestreamed panel are very common and mix of live and pre-recorded (referred discussion (day to be decided) during include some of the most to as “On-Demand,” which is what which you will be able to interact PP recognizable creatures ours will be) that you will be able to with speakers. Since our symposium on Earth, but are rarely represented access on-line during November 11- is On-Demand, presentations should at Entomological Society of America 25, 2020. In many ways, this will be be available to watch starting (ESA) meetings. Since 2014, Derek unfortunate since these meetings are November 11, but the meeting A. Woller and rotating groups of a wonderful chance to catch up with schedule is still being finalized, so co-organizers have been working colleagues and make new friends, if you’re interested, please continue diligently to raise their profile at ESA but this cloud’s silver lining is that to check the online program for meetings by organizing Organized anyone in the world will be able to updates using the symposium’s title: Meetings and Member Symposia (this attend. In fact, the nine speakers we https://www.eventscribe.com/2020/ year’s event type) to highlight all the have planned represent five countries entomology2020/index.asp. We hope fascinating and novel research being and come from a variety of research you can attend! undertaken with polyneopterans. Due experience levels. This year, there will Volume 40 (3) / September 2020 2 METALEPTEA ICE 2024 will be in Kyoto, Japan By MARIA MARTA CIGLIANO Universidad Nacional de la Plata, ARGENTINA [email protected] he Council for Inter- for August 25-30, 2024 and more national Congresses of information will become available Entomology, of which I at https://ice2024kyoto.jp/. But, of am a member, came to course, Helsinki ICE2020, which a decision regarding the has been postponed to 2021 due to TT venue for ICE2024, and COVID-19 is rescheduled to take they asked us to inform our National place on July 18-23, 2021 and more Societies and Entomological Societies information is available at https://ice- about it. Kyoto, Japan was chosen as 2020helsinki.fi/. the venue. The Congress is scheduled Behavioral Plasticity Research Institute (BPRI) - a newly funded NSF Biology Integration Institute By HOJUN SONG Texas A&M University, TX, USA [email protected] he Biology Integration NSF. The title of the funded project Institutes (BII) program is: “Behavioral Plasticity Research is a new program from Institute (BPRI): Transforming the U.S. National Science the Study of Phenotypic Plasticity Foundation’s Directorate through Biological Integration” with TT for Biological Sciences the total funding amount over 5 years that supports collaborative teams of being $12,497,519. The BPRI is one researchers investigating questions of four awards selected as the inau- Here is a technical abstract of our that span multiple disciplines within gural cohort of NSF Biology Integra- project: Phenotypic plasticity – the and beyond biology (awards are for 5 tion Institutes (https://www.nsf.gov/ ability of a genotype to produce years @ $12.5 million). In February news/special_reports/announce- different phenotypes in response 2020, a group of researchers from 5 ments/090120.03.jsp). to different environmental condi- U.S. institutions (Baylor College of Our team consists of Fabrizio Gab- tions – is ubiquitous in nature, and Medicine [lead], Texas A&M Uni- biani (PI, computational neurobiol- occurs across all scales of biological versity, Arizona State University, UC ogy), Herman Dierick (co-PI, genome organization.
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  • Song Duration in the Grasshopper Omocestus Viridulus

    Song Duration in the Grasshopper Omocestus Viridulus

    DENSITY DEPENDENT SONG DURATION IN THE GRASSHOPPER OMOCESTUS VIRIDULUS by THORLEIFUR EIRIKSSON1) (Department of Zoology, Stockholm University, S-106 91 Sweden) (With5 Figures) (Acc.10-VIII-1992) Summary Although duration of grashopper song is species specific, there is also considerable varia- tion within species. One possible reason for this is that males are adjusting their singing tactics in relation to the density of competitors. Males are expected to sing shorter songs when other males are nearby to enhance the probability of hearing female response or to listen to other males. To test this hypothesis an experiment was performed by placing different numbers of Omocestusviridulus males in large outdoor cages and monitoring their singing behaviour. The results show that males sing on average shorter calling songs as the number of males increases. It was also found that males compensate for singing shorter songs by singing more songs, so the total time spent singing stays similar at all densities. The scenario is complicated by the singing of very short songs which are mainly, but not exclusively, used in male-male interactions. The probability that males sing rivalry songs increases with the density of males and the number of these songs increases as male-male interactions get longer. The results suggests that part of the variation in the duration of calling songs reported in several field studies is caused by a change in singing tactics at different densities of males. The function of rivalry songs is not clear. These songs may function in the spacing of males or may be an extremely short form of the normal calling song used when other males are very close.