Calling song structure of Cicada orni Linnaeus (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) in Iran: A comparative study with other areas

Cicada orni Linnaeus, 1758 is an abundant and common cicada across Europe, North Africa, and western Asia including Iran. The male cicada produces a loud calling song for attraction of females from a long distance. The calling songs are known often to be species-specific and to function in part for species recognition. The present study compares variations in calling song of C. orni in Iran with those reported from other areas and also signifies the importance of calling song in species identification. C. orni were collected in Mazandaran, Iran during summer 2010. Four features were used: echeme duration, echeme period, interecheme interval, number of echeme/s and dominant frequency. Findings of present study showed some resemblance in time and frequency domains in the calling song among the populations of C. orni from Iran and those investigated in Greece, Iberian Peninsula and Turkey. The parameters of calling song showed maximal resemblance with species of Kosmas (Greece). The present results do not support C. orni from Iran as an independent subspecies. Thus, it is concluded that every feature of calling song can be effective in species recognition as is the case for several other parameters.