Cicadetta montana s. str. (Scopoli, 1772)

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

Cicadetta montana s. str. (Scopoli, 1772)

Distribution

General distribution (only acoustically-validated data): Southern Europe: Croatia (Trilar & Gogala, unpublished data), France ( Sueur and Puissant 2007a, Sueur and Puissant 2007b, Wade et al. 2015), Greece ( Gogala et al. 2008, Gogala et al. 2009), Italy ( Trilar and Hertach 2008, Wade et al. 2015) (including Sicily ( Hertach 2011)), Montenegro (Trilar & Gogala, unpublished data), North Macedonia ( Gogala and Trilar 1999, Gogala et al. 2005), Romania ( Trilar et al. 2006a, Trilar and Gogala 2008), Serbia ( Gogala and Trilar 2016), Slovenia ( Gogala and Gogala 1999, Gogala and Trilar 2004, Wade et al. 2015); Central Europe: Austria ( Trilar and Holzinger 2004), Germany ( Meineke 2012, Meineke 2015), Hungary ( Trilar and Gogala 2012b), Poland (Trilar & Gogala, unpublished data), Switzerland ( Hertach 2007, Hertach and Pollini Paltrinieri 2012, Wade et al. 2015); Eastern Europe: Russia ( Mikhailenko and Benediktov 2016), Ukraine ( Mikhailenko and Benediktov 2016); British Isles: United Kingdom ( Grant 1970, Gogala and Trilar 2004); Middle East: Iran (Gogala, unpublished data).

Distribution in Bulgaria: These are the first bioacoustically verified data for Cicadetta montana s. str. in Bulgaria. This mountain species was found in Bulgaria at 40 localities in the northern lowest hills of the Pre-Balkan, southern Lower Mountain Pre-Balkan, northern Balkan Mts., southern Balkan Mts., Kraishte-Ichtiman, Vitosha Mt., Sarnena Sredna Gora Mt., Osogovo Mt. and Rila Mt. (Fig. 35 ).

In this survey, the majority of the population was found between 600 and 1400 m (90% of the population) (Fig. 36 ). It was also found at Byala (290 m a.s.l.) and at Golitsa on Kamchiyska Planina (215 m a.s.l.), which is quite low for this species.

Notes

Acoustic behaviour: The song was described by Gogala (2002), Gogala (2006), Gogala and Trilar (1999), Gogala and Trilar (2004), Trilar and Holzinger (2004), Sueur and Puissant (2007a), Hertach (2007) and Trilar and Gogala (2007).

The calling song (Fig. 37 ) consists of a single long phrase of buzzing sound that slowly increases in intensity and ends with a sudden decrease in amplitude (Fig. 37 B) ( Gogala and Trilar 1999, Gogala 2002, Trilar and Gogala 2007). The single long echeme can last half a minute or even up to two minutes, but on average, 43.6 ± 29.7 s ( Gogala and Trilar 2004).

Selected sound samples of Cicadetta montana s. str. are available on the web pages Songs of the European singing cicadas ( Gogala 2020).

Materials: Suppl. material 8

Diagnosis

Cicadetta montana s. str. (Fig. 34 ) inhabits mountain forests, mainly beech forests and also mixed deciduous forests, where some pines or spruces could be found. The males sing high up in the canopies, very often higher than 5 m and up to the treetops. The males sing one or two echemes at the same spot and then fly away for a few tens of metres and start singing at a new spot. Only in the morning, when it starts to sing and in the late afternoon, before it stops singing, it can sing in the same place for a long time.

Figures

Figure 34. Cicadetta montana s. str. female.

Figure 35. Map with localities of Cicadetta montana s. str. in Bulgaria. Red - bioacoustic data collected in this survey.

Figure 36. Altitudinal distribution of Cicadetta montana s. str. The percentage of the recorded localities is displayed in 200 - metre altitude zones.

Figure 37. Calling song of Cicadetta montana s. str. (A) spectrogram and oscillogram of the calling song; (B) oscillogram of the end of the calling song corresponding to the inverted window in (A).