Phantastic songs of the S.E.Asian cicadas!

by Matija Gogala & Tomi Trilar

The loud insect singers - cicadas - show in S.E.Asia very high diversity in forms, colours and acoustic signals. During the years 1992 - 2002 I visited with my colleagues from Slovenian Museum of Natural History in Ljubljana, Slovenia, a few times this region and recorded many fascinating songs of cicadas there. Here is just a humble digest of the rich acoustic soundscape, bound merely to the remaining but disappearing rainforests of the S.E.Asia

Represented digital recordings originate mainly from Thailand and Malaysia. More examples from Borneo (Sabah, Sarawak) one can find in the homepage of Klaus Riede, Germany.

Identified cicadas:

• The song of Purana nebulilinea from peninsular Malaysia has been described by Kos & Gogala (2000). The long sequence (around 1 minute) of high pitched sounds with characteristic frequency modulation pattern can be repeated many times without interruption. Listen to a short selection:

• A song of another species of the same genus Purana sagittata has been described in the paper of Trilar & Gogala (2000) in Tijdschrift voor Entomologie. Listen to the long insert of song from Gombak (Malaysia):
  and for comparison from Endau Rompin national parc as:

• The next example of a long complicated sequence of complex sounds is the song of Purana metallica from Thailand, island Ko Tarutao. The whole repeated sequence of a song, described by Gogala (1995), and in more details by Gogala & Trilar (2007) in Tijdschrift voor Entomologie. This is a very long and rhythmically very complex sound sequence. Let's listen to it:

• Cicadas of the genus Maua are related to the genus Purana and this can be seen also in their song structure (Gogala et al., 2004). They show during the song extreme frequency modulation as e.g. Maua albigutta

• Song of Meimuna tavoyana "Tee-tee-thai" (Doi Suthep, Chiang Mai, Thailand) is described in the paper Gogala (1995) and can be heard here:

• The colourfull Tacua speciosa from Sabah, Kinabalu National Park, is represented here with a short sequence of its many minutes long song: tacua.wav

• One of the common species in Malaysia is also a big green cicada Dundubia vaginata. The song structure, described by K. Riede from Borneo is similar but different from the common song pattern of this species in peninsular Malaysia (Prešern et al., 2004). Here is a short selection of the calling song of this species from Temengor Forest Reserve: .

  

  
  
• Another species of this genus Dundubia oopaga from the island Perhentian in Malaysia (Gogala & Trilar, 2004) has again a different high pitched song:

• Tosena depicta(Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Malaysia) is very loud singer: here we represent a shortened (1/3) sample of its song from Temengor Forest Reserve:

  
  

   

• Terengganua sibylla(Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Malaysia) sings preferably around noon, but in some locations (e.g. Gombak Field Station) also earlier from 9 AM on:

  

   

  
  
• Megapomponia pendleburyi (Endau Rompin, Malaysia)(Gogala & Trilar, 2004) and other close related species of this genus are the most prominent dusk singers which resemble the trumpet sound:
  

  
  

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Cicadas with uncertain identification:

• "Morning fanfare" from Malaysian rain forests (Temengor Forest Reserve, Perak, Malaysia), probably Maua quadrituberculata one can hear from 7 to 7.30 AM:

• "Thriller cicada" from Malaysian rain forests (e.g. near Bangi), most probably Platylomia spinosa can be heard preferably during dusk hours:

References:

Gogala M., 1995: Songs of four cicada species from Thailand. Bioacoustics 6: 101-116.

Gogala M., Riede K., 1995: Time sharing of song activity by cicadas in Temengor Forest Reserve, Hulu Perak, Malaysia. Malayan Nature Journal 48: 297-305.

Gogala M., Trilar T., 2004. Biodiversity of cicadas in Malaysia - a bioacoustic approach. Serangga 9(1-2): 63-81.

Gogala M., Trilar T., 2007. Description of the song of Purana metallica from Thailand and P. latifascia from Borneo (Hemiptera, Cicadidae). – Tijdschrift voor entomologie 150: 389-400.

Kos M., Gogala M., 2000: The cicadas of the Purana nebulilinea group (Homoptera, Cicadidae) with a note on their songs. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 143: 1-25.

Gogala M., Trilar T., Kozina U., Duffels H. (2004): Frequency modulated song of the cicada Maua albigutta (Walker 1856) (Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadoidea) from South East Asia. – Scopolia 54: 1-15.

Prešern J., Gogala M., Trilar T., Comparison of Dundubia vaginata ()Auchenorrhyncha: Cicadoidea) songs from Borneo and Peninsular Malaysia. Acta entomologica slovenica 12(2): 239-248.

Trilar T., Gogala M., 2002: Description of the song of Purana sagittata Schouten & Duffels (Homoptera, Cicadidae) from peninsular Malaysia. Tijdschrift voor Entomologie 145: 47-55.

More interesting examples will be shown here in the future...

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  Matija Gogala, Ljubljana - Slovenia