Guaranisaria llanoi Torres 1964
Creators: name: Acosta, Riuler C.
name: Ruschel, Tatiana P.
name: Kaminski, Lucas A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Hemiptera
Cicadidae
Guaranisaria
Guaranisaria llanoi

description: Guaranisaria llanoi (eryngo-cicada)
The eryngo-cicada has a low flight compared to colourful-cicada, flying at heights up to 1 m from the ground, with the environment temperature varying between 16°C and 21°C. Copulation was observed within the rosette of Gravatá (Eryngium horridum Malme, Apiaceae) (Fig. 2A–C). Adult cicadas from both sexes use this thorny rosette plant as a shelter, remaining protected among the thorns (N = 30 individuals). A female laying eggs on the stem that supports the inflorescences was observed by citizen scientists (Fig. 2D; Carvalho 2018), suggesting that immature stages are also specialized on this abundant host plant. During courtship the female remains fixed on the thorns of the Gravatá, and the male emits courtship signals along with numerous attempts of copulation. During the courtship, the female responds to the male with a wing-flick (see Supporting Information, Video Clips S1 and S2), which also probably indicates the female’s location. During the only copulation observed, individuals were positioned laterally. The copulation lasted 2 min. In contrast to colourful-cicada, G. llanoi presents a high specificity on plant species, being found resting, flying, and singing only in association with Gravatá.
The G. llanoi was described from Pronunciamiento (Entre Rios, Argentina) and has records in Argentina (Buenos Aires) and southern Brazil (Rio Grande do Sul) (Torres 1964, Lenicov et al. 2015, Cioato 2017) (Fig 3A). Adults have been registered in the spring, from September to December (Fig. 4B). The mean vector (µ) of phenology obtained from the two cicada species coincided in the early October (r = 0.82, P <.04) for colourful-cicada, and (r = 0.9, P <.05) for eryngo-cicada. The high value of r obtained indicates a strong concentration of these data in similar periods, indicating the coexistence of these two cicada species during a short time interval. The Rayleigh test (z) returned values of 2.7 (P =.05) for the eryngo-cicada, and 268.7 (P <.05) for the colourful-cicada.
Guaranisaria llanoi (eryngo-cicada)
The species has a rich and diverse repertoire (Fig. 6), presenting four signals, namely the flying song (N = 6), calling song (N = 6), courtship song (N = 2), and wing-flick (N = 2), the last emitted by females. The species has a period of activity between 10 a.m. and 2 p. m., when the environmental temperature is at the highest, between 20°C and 21°C.
The flying song (Fig. 6A) is composed, on average, by a train of 23 ± 3 (16–28) clicks. During the emission of this signal, the males perform a low and fast flight, less than 1 m high. The interval between syllables presents values of 0.173 ± 0.042 s (0.097 –0.253 s).
The calling song (Fig. 6B) is produced when the male lands on a Gravatá that does not have a female. This signal can be divided into two parts. The first part of the signal, called ‘part A’, consists of a single echeme, lasting 0.035 ± 0.003 s (0.031 –0.043 s), spaced by a brief interval from the next part. The second part of the signal, ‘part B’, is an echeme with a series of syllables, lasting 0.104 ± 0.084 s (0.024 –0.238 s) (Fig. 6D). The last syllables have a higher emission rate and amplitude, and no differences were found between different sessions of this signal (Mann–Whitney test, U = 33, P>.05).
The courtship song is emitted when the male lands on a Gravatá with a female. This signal, similar to the calling song, also has two parts. The first, ‘part A’, has two or three echemes, with two or three syllables, lasting 0.041 ± 0.04 s (0.009 –0.141 s), spaced by a brief interval. The ‘part B’ has larger notes, lasting 0.082 ± 0.02 s (0.038 –0.153 s), as well as a greater number of syllables. This part, similar to part B of the calling song, also has a higher emission rate in the final syllables. Significant differences were found between the different sessions of the courtship song (Mann–Whitney test, U = 2238.5, P <.05).
During courtship, there are times when the male moves away and approaches the female. Female responds positively to the male, emitting a series of wing-flicks, which are brief clicks with the wings, totalling two syllables, while the male approaches the female again. When the male is close, the female stops emitting this signal. A female emitted this sound after an involuntary mechanical stimulus on the Gravatá, suggesting a relevant female role in acoustic communication.
When comparing signals from the G. llanoi repertoire, we obtained significant differences when comparing peak frequencies (ANOVA, one-way, F = 99.43, P <.05) and echeme duration (ANOVA, one-way, F = 145.3, P <.05). We also found significant differences between all comparisons using the Mann–Whitney test (P <.05) (Supporting Information, Tables S1 and S 2).
description: Published as part of Acosta, Riuler C., Ruschel, Tatiana P. & Kaminski, Lucas A., 2024, Flying singers: spatio-temporal distribution and acoustic dynamics of two species of Carinetini (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) cicadas in sympatry, pp. 1-12 in Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 202 (2) on pages 4-6, DOI: 10.1093/zoolinnean/zlad173, http://zenodo.org/record/10605939