Song Patterns and Stridulatory Movements in Conocephalus Species (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea: Conocephalidae) of the Eastern Hemisphere: A Review with Some New Data

Conocephalus is a speciose, worldwide distributed genus of small bush-crickets (=katydids; Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea). While some of its species have huge ranges covering several continents, forms occurring in both hemispheres are not known. Partly due to their large ranges and because of morphological similarity, the correct identification of species is often not easy. Here, we present a review of the acoustic communication of all species with known songs in the eastern hemisphere. The species-specific amplitude pattern of the calling songs offers a helpful tool to find out which species are involved. Our results—using data from published sound files on compact discs, internet resources and conventional papers—show that species have the same species-specific songs all over their range. In addition to some misidentifications and situations which require further studies, however, we recover the widespread Conocephalus maculatus as a species complex with an Asiatic taxon (C. maculatus s.str.) and an African taxon (could be called Conocephalus continuus), both differing in song. The Indian Conocephalus hilli is considered a synonym (form) of C. maculatus.