Charles Fleming studied the songs of different cicadas. He found he could use differences in the songs to distinguish species, and similarities to group together related species. Listen to him play the call of the sand dune cicada (Rhodopsalta leptomera, top) and its relative the redtailed cicada (Rhodopsalta cruentata, bottom).
Transcript
And more than anything else they differ in song, so that many of the discoveries we've made have been by recognising a song that was different.
Interviewer: Could you give us a couple of examples of the way in which the song differs?
Yes, well I play a little bit of the sand dunes cicada common on the west coast of the North Island in the sand dunes right above the beach and then the very closely related redtailed cicada that lives on the fixed sand dunes a bit further inland and on terrace soils well drained soils throughout both islands of New Zealand. And you'll find that the two songs are similar in general form but one is very much more rapidly repeated than the other.
That was the sand dunes now for the redtailed cicada.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Private collection
by M. J. Esson
Sound file from Ngā Taonga Sound & Vision. Reference 38421
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