Saga natoliae Serville, 1838

Şirin, Deniz, Taylan, Mehmet Sait, Sevgili, Hasan & Mol, Abbas, 2019, Bioacoustics review of Anatolian species of the predatory bush-cricket genus Saga (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Saginae) with the description of a new species, Zootaxa 4664 (1), pp. 83-102 : 86-87

Saga natoliae Serville, 1838

Distribution: This species was recorded from Balkans, Anatolia, Syria and Lebanon ( Krauss 1879; Kirby 1906; Kaltenbach 1964, 1967). The distribution of species in Anatolia has intensified mostly in Aegean and Mediterranean parts ( Figure 2A ) of it ( Ramme 1951; Karabağ 1958; Kaltenbach 1967; Karabağ et al. 1971, 1974; Önder et al. 1999; Sevgili et al. 2011; Tazegül & Önder 2012; Heller 2016; Mol et al. 2016).

Song recording: Male specimens collected from Turkey; İzmir, Aydın-İzmir highway to Torbalı, roadside, N: 38°14.05’, E: 27°22.18’, 90 m, 29. VI.2018, leg.: D. Şirin, M.S. Taylan and calling songs are recorded from one male at 28 ˚C in the room conditions (by M.S. Taylan), Antalya, Akseki-Bozkır road, Ahırlı location, N 36°11.57’, E 036°06.26’, 1376 m, 23.VII.2017, leg.: H. Sevgili, D. Şirin, A. Mol & M.S. Taylan and the calling songs were recorded from one male at 26 ˚C in the room conditions (by D. Şirin), Antalya, Termessos, Güllükdağı, N 36°59.03’, E 030°27.47’, 1036 m, 04.VII.2015, leg.: D. Şirin, A. Mol & M.S. Taylan and the calling songs are recorded from one male at 27 ˚C in the room conditions (by D. Şirin).

Description of song: A t otal of 15 records from six males were examined. The calling song consists of phrases ( Figure 2B ) with irregular intervals. Phrases usually reach its maximum intensity between 1/4 and 1/3 of the phrase; however, in some of the phrases, there is often a more gradual crescendo roughly up to half of the phrase. Phrase durations vary between 2.29 and 4.18 s (3.21 ± 0.18), and the phrase comprises between 83 and 131 syllables (108.6 ± 5.56). The phrase generally begins with a characteristic isolated hemisyllable, which has variable amplitude and durations within intra and inter-populations of species (Termessos: 3–18 ms; Torbalı: 26–31 ms and Ahırlı: 15–23 ms) ( Figure 2C ). The isolated loud hemisyllable is followed by contiguous/ordinary syllables of phrase with a variable gap in duration within intra and inter-populations of species (Termessos: 25–276 ms; Torbalı: 24–28 ms and Ahırlı: 12–124 ms). Oscillographic analyses show that the syllable period duration varies between 25.01 and 46.47 ms (28.33 ± 1.83) and each syllable shows approximately a standard structure, which is formulated as soft opening hemisyllable + loud closing hemisyllable ( Figure 2D ).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Distribution map (A) and male calling song of Saga natoliae (B—phrase series, C—one complete phrase and D—a group of syllables, black arrow is the hypothetic opening hemisyllable movemtent and grey arrow is the hypothetic closing hemisyllable movement).