Regular ArticleFurther acoustic diversity in Hawaiian forests: two new species of Hawaiian cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Trigonidiinae Laupala)

The genus Laupala is endemic to the rain forested islands of the Hawaiian archipelago. In his 1994 study Otte described 35 Laupala species, each restricted to a single island, and sometimes a single volcano. AllLaupala species produce male calling songs consisting of slow trills. Two new species described here, one from the Koolau Mountains of Oahu and another from Kipahulu Valley of East Maui, produce the fastest and one of the slowest pulse rates, respectively, in the genus. Both species are found with sympatric congeners. The discovery of these species increases the acoustic diversity locally (within their respective communities), within their respective islands, and across the archipelago. This enhances the opportunity for the investigation of signal interference and character displacement in a relatively youthful assemblage of closely related species of crickets.