Ancylecha fenestrata (Fabricius, 1793)

Ancylecha fenestrata adult female

Ancylecha fenestrata is a large bush-cricket (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) from Malaysia. It has been reared in Europe for a number of years on Ligustrum spp. (Privet) and Rubus spp. (Bramble). The above picture was the first to reach maturity out of a total of 3 females and 1 male (several nymphs died due to bad moults - often from falling during the moulting process).

The acoustics of this species are relatively poorly known, an audible defensive stridulation is made by both sexes. There are some reports (Scherberich et al, 2013) of the males having a calling song in the ultrasound, although I have not yet been able to confirm this (a signal matching their description that I recorded was later found to be interference on the power supply to the recorder, possibly from fluorescent light fittings).

I have several days and nights worth of recordings of the male, an isolated male and female, and a male and female in the same enclosure to process and hopefully identify a calling song.

Samples of the defensive stridulation will be added to BioAcoustica (Baker et al, 2015) (direct link to Ancylecha fenestrata page). There are already links to several publications on the sound production and hearing of this species.

Ancylecha fenestrata female nymph

Ancylecha fenestrata female nymph. Both nymphs and adults of both sexes regularly sit with both antennae under their bodies in contact with the substrate.