Interspecific acoustic interactions among katydids Neoconocephalus: inhibition-induced shifts in diel periodicity

Abstract Males of the katydid Neoconocephalus spiza stridulate in a loud, chirping manner, but they are inhibited from singing during the uninterrupted songs of three sympatric congeners. Playback experiments using natural and synthetic stimuli showed that inhibition can be caused by any continuous or rapidly pulsing sound presented at an intensity greater than 40 dB sound pressure level and from 8 to 16 kHz in frequency, the approximate spectral range of the N. spiza chirps and the continuous songs of the congeneric species. In specific habitats where inhibiting species are absent, N. spiza sings primarily at night, but diurnal singing prevails where the inhibitors, all nocturnal, are found. Removal of the inhibiting species in a field experiment resulted in a rapid shift of the periodicity of N. spiza signalling from diurnal to nocturnal. This is the first reported case of a reversal in diel periodicity of singing caused by signal interference. It is argued that in a noisy environment, long-term temporal adjustments may be the most effective means of avoiding the problem of acoustic interference.

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