Dimissalna dimissa (Hagen, 1856)

Trilar, Tomi, Gjonov, Ilia & Gogala, Matija, 2020, Checklist and provisional atlas of singing cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) of Bulgaria, based on bioacoustics, Biodiversity Data Journal 8, pp. 54424-54424 : 54424

Dimissalna dimissa (Hagen, 1856)

Distribution

General distribution: Southern Europe: Albania, Bosnia ( Puissant and Sueur 2011), Bulgaria, Croatia, France ( Puissant and Sueur 2011, Gurcel 2011, Puissant 2012), Greece, Italy, Montenegro (Trilar & Gogala, unpublished data), North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia ( Janković 1966, Lekić 1966, Janković 1975, Gogala and Trilar 2016), Slovenia; Eastern Europe: Russia (South European Russia) ( Popov 1975); Middle East: Israel, Syria, Turkey; Transcaucasia: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Russia (Chechnya); Central Asia: Kazakhstan, Russia (Siberia) (all data except for the countries with the citation in brackets are summarised by Duffels and van der Laan 1985 and Sanborn 2014).

The records from Kazakhstan and Central Asia are doubtful as they could refer to unidentified Central-Asiatic closely-related species (Tishechkin, personal communication). There are doubtful records for Sicily ( Servadei 1967, Nast 1972) and Crete ( Nast 1972), since Dimissalna dimissa was never found in recent fieldwork with bioacoustic methods on these Islands (Thomas Hertach, personal communication, Trilar and Gogala 2010, Trilar and Gogala 2012a). The presence of Dimissalna dimissa in China, as reported by Nast (1972), can be considered highly doubtful, as it has not been mentioned in any recent work on Chinese cicadas (e.g. Chou et al. 1997).

Distribution in Bulgaria: Dimissalna dimissa is the second most common and widespread species of singing cicada distributed in Bulgaria. Data are known for 122 localities (Fig. 51 ). In literature, we found data for Bulgaria in Nedyalkov (1908) and Háva (2016). Arabadzhiev (1963) considers Dimissalna dimissa as a pest in the orchards in the area of Pavlikeni. The species is also listed in the overviews by Nast (1972), Nast (1987) and Holzinger et al. (2003), but without precise locality data for Bulgaria.

In Bulgaria, Dimissalna dimissa is a generally distributed species with known data in western Danubian Plane, eastern Danubian Plane, northern lowest hills of the Pre-Balkan, southern Lower Mountain Pre-Balkan, northern Balkan Mts., Kraishte-Ichtiman, Osogovo Mt., Belasitsa Mt., Osogovo Mt., Kyustendil-Blagoevgrad Middle Struma valley, Sandanski-Petrich Middle Struma valley, Pirin Mt., Gotse Delchev Mesta valley, Dabrash-Batak western Rhodope Mts., Prespa-Chernatitsa western Rhodope Mts., Upper Thracian Plain, Tundzha-Burgas Valley, Eastern Rhodope Mts., Haskovo Hills Land, Sakar Mt. and Strandzha Mt. (Fig. 51 ).

In this survey, the majority of the population was found between sea level and 1000 m (98% of the population) (Fig. 52 ). Only three localities were above this limit. We found Dimissalna dimissa near Sinchets (1009 m a.s.l.). In the ZISB collection, one female is kept from Mt. Vedernik peak near Belogradchik (1080 m a.s.l.), collected by B. Zaharieva and the other female from Mt. Persenk in western Rhodopes (1680 m a.s.l.) collected by V. Bayryamova.

Notes

Acoustic behaviour: The song was described by Popov (1975) and Gogala and Popov (2000). Sound emission consists of two types of songs, between which the animals can switch without interruption ( Popov 1975, Gogala and Popov 2000).

The first type of song (Fig. 53 ) can last from a few seconds to many minutes and consists of a sequence of short, identical phrases made up of 5-6 short echemes (duration (d) 4.7-6.3 ms, repetition rate (rr) 43.1 Hz) and one long echeme (d = 25.8-59.3 ms, rr = 5.7 Hz) (Fig. 53 B) ( Gogala and Popov 2000).

The second type (Fig. 54 ) also lasts for several minutes and comprises a series of very complex sequences (d = 4.5-9.4 s). Each sequence consists of four segments that follow each other in a strictly defined order. The first segment (Fig. 54 C) (d = 0.65-2.62 s) consists of a simple series of short echemes (d = 31.1 ± 5.8 s, rr = 32.2 Hz). In the second segment (Fig. 54 C) (d = 2 ± 0.7 s), the pattern is similar to the first type of song, but the number of short echemes and the duration of long echemes increases gradually (from 13-16 ms at the beginning to 60-71 ms at the end). In the third segment (Fig. 54 D) (d = 1.55-4.0 s) the echemes finally merge into a continuous buzzing sound. After a short pause (d = 37.4 ± 5 ms), the final long echeme (Fig. 54 D) (d=70.7 ± 6.9 ms) follows and, after a short interval (d = 123 ± 24 ms), the entire sequence starts again. The frequency band of sound emission is between 10 and 18.5 kHz with a peak around 13 kHz ( Popov 1975, Gogala and Popov 2000).

Selected sound samples of Dimissalna dimissa are available on the web pages Songs of the European singing cicadas ( Gogala 2020).

Materials: Suppl. material 12

Diagnosis

Dimissalna dimissa (Fig. 50 ) emits sound in high frequencies, usually in the community of many other lower pitched and loud singing cicada species, so it is difficult to hear them without ultrasonic detectors and therefore is often overlooked. The animals usually live on trees or tall shrubs and can be found high up in the tree canopies from 2-4 m and up to the treetops ( Popov 1975, Trilar and Gogala 2008, Puissant 2012).

Figures

Figure 50. Dimissalna dimissa male.

Figure 51. Map with localities of Dimissalna dimissa in Bulgaria. Black - literature data, blue - data from collections, red - bioacoustic data collected in this survey.

Figure 52. Altitudinal distribution of Dimissalna dimissa. The percentage of the recorded localities is displayed in 200 - metre altitude zones.

Figure 53. First type of song of Dimissalna dimissa. (A) spectrogram and oscillogram of the selected part; (B) oscillogram of the enlarged part corresponding to the inverted window in (A).

Figure 54. Second type of song of Dimissalna dimissa. (A) spectrogram and oscillogram of the second type of song; (B) oscillogram of one sequence of the second type of song corresponding to the inverse window in (A); (C) oscillogram of the first and second segments; (D) oscillogram of the third segment and final long echeme (LE).