Klaus-Gerhard Heller

Friedrich-Alexander-University of Erlangen-Nürnberg | FAU · Dep. of Zoology (formerly)

Being nocturnal, hiding in prickly bushes and shrubs during the day, Eupholidoptera species in Crete and its neighbouring islands are easily overlooked, and until now our knowledge about their distribution was based on some thirty sightings across 11 species. In this paper results are presented of a study of Eupholidoptera specimens collected betwe...

Our study focuses on the origin, dispersal patterns, evolutionary strategies and systematics of Poecilimon, the largest bush‐cricket genus in the Palaearctic with over 150 taxa described. We employ phylogenetic and divergence time estimation analyses based on multilocus sequence data (ND2 + COI + 12 S + 16 S + ITS+28 S), perform ancestral area reco...

The genus Macroscirtus belongs to the subfamily Mecopodinae with five recognized species distributed in central-west tropical Africa. All species are known from very few localities. The species are reviewed and, in addition, a new species from Cameroon is described. Macroscirtus kekeunoui sp. nov. is characterized by the tegmina not reaching the pe...

In the mate finding system of bush-crickets, acoustical signals play a central role. Here we review and describe the bioacoustics of Hetrodini, a morphologically uniform group of Tettigonioidea with a distribution centered in Africa. The male calling songs are produced by tegmino-tegminal stridulation. In all species, these fore wings are completel...

High mountains are known for their unique habitats and extreme climatic conditions. Many inhabitants of this area are specialists and are known as hypsobionts. Among Ensifera, only selected species from different genera are true hypsobionts. Species in the genus Hyphinomos are one of them. Hyphinomos occurs only between 3800 and 5500 m a.s.l., and...

High mountains are known for their unique habitats and extreme climatic conditions. Many inhabitants of this area are specialists and are known as hypsobionts. Among Ensifera, only selected species from different genera are true hypsobionts. Species in the genus Hyphinomos are one of them. Hyphinomos occurs only between 3800 and 5500 m a.s.l., and...

As many as 17 subspecies are currently recognized for the lesser false vampire, Megaderma spasma along its wide distributional range, from India to Southeast Asia. Cytogenetic studies have been so far restricted to specimens from only four geographical regions, namely Malaysia, Thailand, China and the Philippines. We examined the karyotypes of M. s...

The high-altitude species Anormalous zhangi Liu, 2011 was bred over five generations from eggs laid by a single female found at nearly 4000 m NN on Shika Snow Mountain (Dêqên, Yunnan). Eggs of the first generation laid by the end of August hatched after two winters and one intermediate warm period, while eggs of the following generations laid in Ju...

East Africa is a hotspot of biodiversity of many orthopteran taxa, including bushcrickets. Gonatoxia Karsch, 1889 species are fully alate Phaneropterinae, which are perfectly adapted to the foliage of forests. We examined five species using combined cytogenetic and molecular data to determine the inter- and intraspecific genetic diversity. The vari...

Bush-crickets (or katydids) of the genus Mecopoda are relatively large insects well-known for their sounds for centuries. Bioacoustic studies in India and China revealed a surprisingly large diversity of sound patterns. We extend these studies into the tropics of South East Asia using integrative taxonomy, combining song analysis, morphology of sou...

Classical and molecular cytogenetic methods were applied to study the karyotypes of one species of Hipposideridae and three taxa of the Rhinolophidae subgenus Aquias from Malaysian Borneo. Except for four chromosomal pairs with autapomorphic arm combinations, the karyotype of Coelops robinsoni was found to be similar to the closely related Asellisc...

With nearly 60 described forms Uromenus is the most species-rich genus of the tribe Ephippigerini, a west Palearctic group of flightless bush-crickets (katydids). As it is typical for bush-crickets, Uromenus males produce species-specific calling songs to attract females prepared to mate. These insects are relatively large and their songs have alwa...

The genus Dicranostomus belongs to the very few Orthoptera with elongated mandibular processes, here called tusks. However, it is also one of the least studied genera from whose two species only one female and two males have been known so far. We present additional material from both species and sexes that confirms that the males have the relativel...

The genus Dicranostomus belongs to the very few Orthoptera with elon- gated mandibular processes, here called tusks. However, it is also one of the least studied genera from whose two species only one female and two males have been known so far. We present additional material from both species and sexes that confirms that the males have the relativ...

East African mountains constitute a network of isolated habitat islands among dry savannah and are thus ideal for studying species diversification processes. This study elucidated the phylogenetic and phylogeographic relationships of all bushcricket species comprising the genus Aerotegmina. Our analysis indicated that large-scale climatic and topog...

In bush-crickets, males produce a calling song to announce their presence to females. Females ready to mate respond either by a phonotactic approach or signal their presence acoustically by establishing a kind of duet. This duetting behaviour is typical of phaneropterid bush-crickets, of which many species in Europe are flightless. In the long-wing...

Articulata 35:37-46 (2020) Males and females of a species typically differ in some characters. Most of these traits are connected to reproduction, e.g. finding mates or laying eggs. However, also basic parts of the behaviour are affected. For example, both males and females move in their habitat, but in some species, they differ in this activity....

535 Zootaxa 4890 (4): 535-553 Abstract The genus Poecilimon has been object of several studies dealing with its systematics, sound communication and evolution. Yet, published data contradict in the classification, while many taxa are still insufficiently known. In the present study we supplement the knowledge of 13 poorly known species and one addi...

To find a mate, males and females of phaneropterine bush-crickets engage in duets. The male starts a duet and a female responds if she is prepared to mate. This pattern is exactly followed in the acoustic communication of a species of the genus Anacaulomera from the State of Bahia in Brazil which we newly describe in this manuscript. However, the m...

The tettigoniid subfamily Phyllophorinae, distributed in Southeast Asia and Australia, is poorly known. Our study of the biology of Giant Katydid Siliquofera grandis (Blanchard, 1853) from a laboratory culture has shown that these insects mate more than once, the females lay a total of up to 400 eggs during their life, and these hatch after 2–2.5 m...

Gonatoxia helleri Hemp, 2016 is one of the most widespread bush-crickets of the genus Gonatoxia Karsch, 1889 in East Africa. This species with seven large chromosomes (2n♂ = 7) differs from other representatives of the genus Gonatoxia drastically by its reduced chromosome number, the asymmetrical karyotype including karyomorphs rarely found in tett...

Acoustic communication is an essential part of the mate-finding system of many insects, e.g., ensiferan Orthoptera. In this group, the signals consist typically of relatively simple repetitive sound patterns produced for long times and used by the females for a phonotactic approach to the singing males. However, the situation can be different in du...

Hvar Saw Bush-cricket Barbitistes kaltenbachi Harz, 1965 (Phaneropterinae: Barbitistini) and Lesina Bush-cricket Rhacocleis buchichii Brunner von Wattenwyl in Herman 1874 (Tettigoniinae: Platycleidini) are flightless orthopterans restricted to a narrow area in the Mediterranean part of Croatia, both originally described from Hvar Island. In this st...

Two endemic genera of large tettigoniids are found in the Canary Islands and Madeira, which are morphologically similar to the genus Tettigonia. In this study, the karyotypes of representatives of the Glyphonotini genera Calliphona and Psalmatophanes are described for the first time. Comparison of their chromosomes with that of members of Tettigoni...

The genus Mecopoda Serville includes eight species, which are mostly distributed in the Oriental region and a few areas in the Palearctic and Australian region. Five species have been recorded in China. Here based on the acoustical and morphological data, we provide a review on the genus Mecopoda in China. We divide the genus Mecopoda into three sp...

Two species of the monogeneric family Nycteridae were studied for the first time with chromosome banding techniques and chromosome painting. The diploid chromosome number of Nycteris macrotis and N. tragata is 40 and 38, respectively. Both karyotypes differ by a translocation, a telomeric fusion and a pericentric inversion. The genus Nycteris shows...

We present a comparative molecular cytogenetic investigation of six emballonurid species using chromosome banding and cross-species chromosome painting with probes from Myotis myotis, supplemented by selected probes from human, tree shrew, and lemur. The main differences between the 2n = 42 Taphozous karyotype and the 2n = 44 chromosomal complement...

A list of the Orthoptera of Miombo woodlands of the Manyara, Dodoma and Tabora Regions of Tanzania is presented. 64 Ensifera species were recorded of which two genera (Kefalia n. gen. with three species newly described; Sentia n. gen., 1 species) and Melidia adfinia n. sp. are new to science. Further 4 new species of Acrometopini are described from...

Eleven new Agraeciini species are described. Six species of Afroanthracites are new to science from the North and South Pare, the West and East Usambara, the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania, and the Taita Hills of Kenya. The two Afroanthracites Hemp & Ingrisch, 2013 species from the Pare Mountains, A. guttatus n. sp. and A. maculatus n. sp., and A....

Madagascar is one of the world hotspots for endemics, and its rapidly changing habitats accelerate the need for their study and conservation. Orthopterans, mantids, phasmids, and cockroaches were sampled in five main habitats (savanna and shrubland, semiarid spiny forest, rainforest, mountain grass- and shrubland, and cultivated habitats) in centra...

Species of Sinocyrtaspis Liu inhabit moist montane environments in south China, and occur allopatrically in restricted regions without overlapping areas. This study presents the first phylogeny of Sinocyrtaspis based on one nuclear DNA sequence [partial ITS1‐5.8S rDNA‐ITS2 (ITS)] as well as two mitochondrial genes [cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI...

During a joint ecological project of the Institute of Forest Ecology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Zvolen, Slovakia, and the University of Antananarivo, Madagascar, eight species (10 specimens) of phaneropterine bush-crickets were collected. Among them, two species were found as new to science (Mimoscudderia longicaudata n. sp., Paraphyrrhicia leuca...

The state São Tomé and Príncipe consists of two separated oceanic archipelagos situated in the Gulf of Guinea (West Cen- tral Africa). Except of a first survey on São Tomé in the 19th century, its Orthoptera fauna has never been studied system- atically. Here a list of all tettigonioid species which have been recorded from the islands is presented...

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A male of Yersinella raymondii found alive in an office building in Walldorf near Mannheim. Articulata 33: 69–72 (2018)

Poecilimon Fischer (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) consists of about 130 species and a functional taxonomy of the genus re- quires arranging species into phylogenetic groups. However, this is a task that requires detailed empirical testing. This paper documents data on Poecilimon species with an inflated pronotum. The Poecilimon (Poecilimon) inflatus g...

The authors revised the genus Morgenia Karsch, 1890 which now consists of eight species, of which three are here newly described (Morgenia plurimaculata Massa & Moulin, sp. n., M. angustipinnata Massa, sp. n., and M. lehmannorum Heller & Massa, sp. n.). Six of the eight species occur in the Tri National Sangha (TNS) comprising Dzanga-Sangha Special...

Madagascar is a well-known hotspot of biodiversity. However, many Or- thoptera, and especially the Tettigonioidea, belong to little-studied groups. Here we describe a new genus and species of bush-cricket reared from field- collected eggs. Paraplangia sinespeculo gen. nov., sp. nov. belongs to Phanero- pterinae and shares diagnostic characteristics...

The aim of this study is to conduct a detailed taxonomic revision of the Poecilimon (Poecilimon) zonatus species-group (Orthoptera: Phaneropterinae) using both morphology and bioacoustics. Two new species (Poecilimon (Poecilimon) salmani, P. (P) azizsancar) and one new subspecies (P. (P) zonatus datca) are described. Based on the data, we conclude...

To find a mate, male and female bush-crickets of the family Phaneropteridae typically engage in duets. The male sings and the female responds. For mutual recognition, the amplitude pattern of the male song and the species-specific timing of the female response have been shown to be very important. In the seven studied species, belonging to the gene...

The genus Aerotegmina comprises a group of African canopy-dwelling, predatory bushcrickets (katydids) that is known for its inflated tegmina and the unusually loud and low-frequency calling song of its type species. Here, we describe the songs of another two species of the genus which are much larger than the type species and have an even lower pea...

Two new genera of East African Acrometopini are erected: the monotypic Peronurella n. gen. with P. centralis n. sp. from Miombo woodlands in central Tanzania, and Tenerasphaga n. gen. for a morphological uniform group of species formerly included in Horatosphaga, T. chyuluensis n. sp., T. mbulu n. sp. T. nanyuki, T. nuda n. comb, T. meruensis n. co...

This is the first study to address the molecular phylogeny of East African Meconematinae. We used DNA sequence data from the three genes cytochrome oxidase subunit I (COI), 16S rRNA and histone H3 to reconstruct the relationships within the genus Amytta using Bayesian Inference and maximum likelihood. We included 45 individuals representing 19 Meco...

Among insects, Orthoptera are a group famous for communicating by sound. This is especially true for bush-crickets (or katydids; Tettigonioidea). All acoustically active species produce sound by rubbing the fore wings (tegmina) against each other, using a stridulatory file situated on the lower side of the left tegmen and a scraper formed by the in...

The genus Dendrobia n. gen. is erected to include D. amaniensis n. sp. from the East Usambara Mountains as type species. A second species in this genus, D. octopuncata n. sp., is described from the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania. Dendrobia n. gen. is a canopy dweller found only high up on trees in closed submontane and montane forest. The peak freq...

In katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea) of the subfamily Phaneropterinae females ready to mate initiate a duet, announcing her position to the male singer, but also potentially to eavesdropping rivals. In many species the male seems to defend the communication by adding self-produced imitations of a female response. If these signals occur within t...

Open access https://jor.pensoft.net/articles.php?id=14548 The genus Ectadia is an East Asian genus of the tribe Elimaeini (Phaneropterinae) and is known for the complex stridulatory files of its members. The calling song was so far known from only one species, the relatively widespread Ectadia fulva. Here a new species from Yunnan, China, is descr...

Revision of Poecilimon zonatus species group

Montana medvedevi is reported for the first time from Serbia. New information about the distribution, morphology and song of this species is discussed. The song of M. medvedevi is different from that of all other members of the genus, all figured for comparison. Montana is quite diverse regarding the amplitude pattern of the calling song of its mem...

New species of Amytta are described from East Africa. Beside tegminal length, they differ mainly in the structure of the complicated male genitalic organs, notably the last abdominal tergite and cerci. Data on habitat and the acoustics of some species and a key to the species are provided. The songs of all seven Amytta species studied are very simi...

The present study focused on the evolution of the karyotype in four genera of the tribe Pholidopterini: Eupholidoptera Mařan, 1953, Parapholidoptera Mařan, 1953, Pholidoptera Wesmaël, 1838, Uvarovistia Mařan, 1953. Chromosomes were analyzed using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) with 18S rDNA and (TTAGG) n telomeric probes, and classical...

Sound file of male calling song and female acoustic response in Ducetia antipoda

Sound file of male calling song of Ducetia antipoda

Sound file of male calling song of Ducetia malayana

Sound file of male calling song of Ducetia melodica

Sound file of male calling song of Ducetia neochlora

Sound file of male calling song of Ducetia japonica

In many groups of animals, especially insects, genital morphology is species distinctive. This is true of bush-crickets or katydids (Tettigonioidea). The calling songs produced by males are species distinctive and do not change significantly during the early stages of speciation. Their patterns are usually relatively simple. We present an example w...

Cytogenetical studies were performed in nine taxa (eight species and one additional subspecies) of Parnassiana and two additional closely related taxa belonging to tribe Plactyleidini. Classical (C-banding, DAPI/CMA3-staining, Ag-NOR) and molecular (fluorescence in situ hybridization with 18S rDNA probe) methods were used for cytological discrimina...

Species of the genus Phlesirtes are reviewed in this paper and 16 new species described. A key is provided to the species of Phlesirtes. Among the subtribe Karniellina of Conocephalini members of the genus Phlesirtes occupy habitats of montane to afroalpine grasslands in East Africa. All recorded species produced long-lasting, trill-like calling so...

The genus Tettigonia includes 26 species distributed in the Palaearctic region. Though the Green Bush-crickets are widespread in Europe and common in a variety of habitats throughout the Palaearctic ecozone, the genus is still in need of scientific attention due to the presence of a multitude of poorly explored taxa. In the present study, we sought...

The genus Tettigonia includes 26 species distributed in the Palaearctic region. Though the Green Bush-crickets are widespread in Europe and common in a variety of habitats throughout the Palaearctic ecozone, the genus is still in need of scientific attention due to the presence of a multitude of poorly explored taxa. In the present study, we sought...

The East Palearctic genus Uvarovina comprises two species. However, their identification can sometimes be difficult, even when using all available information. The type localities of U. daurica and U. chinensis are situated at the opposite edges of the genus' range, where the species can be diagnosed easily. In other parts of their range the situat...