Notes on the Tropical Andean Genus Disceratus (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae), the Probable Male of D. nubiger, and Its Calling Song

Abstract A male Disceratus specimen found in cloud forest of Podocarpus National Park in southernmost Ecuador is apparently conspecific with Disceratus nubiger Scudder 1869, known only from the female holotype, collected one and a half centuries ago on slopes of the volcano Antisana. The song of this male could be recorded, confirming the identification of field recordings as well as additional acoustic records with an ultrasound detector at the same site. This incessant calling song, a series of steadily repeated short clicks with a sharp peak at 20 kHz, easily reveals the presence of this short-legged and brachypterous katydid — it lives in bamboo thickets within cloud forest, where individuals are very difficult to find. More fieldwork and nocturnal acoustic monitoring in the tropical Andes will be essential to shed light on the distribution and life history of this practically forgotten genus and its species, some of them probably still undiscovered. Disceratus is recognized as full genus rather than ...