The Acoustic Behaviour of Platycleis Albopunctata (Goeze) (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae)

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Abstract
Laboratory studies have been made of the duetting behaviour of the bush cricket Platycleis albopunctata and related to the natural behaviour of this species in the field. Sound transmission and attenuation in grassland habitats has been investigated briefly. Duets between caged males usually commence with a phase of chirp alternation in which each insect produces chirps at half the normal rate. Generally duets resolve into interactions in which one insect sings close to the normal solo rate while the other sings intermittently, interrupting chirps such that the species-specific temporal pattern of the songs of both insects is obscured. The lack of precise alternation and the development of this dominance-subordinance relationship is consistent with a 'territorial' dispersion pattern in the field where males are usually beyond the range of mutual acoustic interference. Laboratory studies have been made of the duetting behaviour of the bush cricket Platycleis albopunctata and related to the natural behaviour of this species in the field. Sound transmission and attenuation in grassland habitats has been investigated briefly. Duets between caged males usually commence with a phase of chirp alternation in which each insect produces chirps at half the normal rate. Generally duets resolve into interactions in which one insect sings close to the normal solo rate while the other sings intermittently, interrupting chirps such that the species-specific temporal pattern of the songs of both insects is obscured. The lack of precise alternation and the development of this dominance-subordinance relationship is consistent with a 'territorial' dispersion pattern in the field where males are usually beyond the range of mutual acoustic interference.