''Supersonus'' is a genus of

katydids Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, t ...

in the order

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grassho ...

first described in 2014. The genus contains three species which are endemic to the rainforests of South America. Its name is an allusion to the fact that the males, in order to attract the females, produce a very high frequency noise which can reach 150 kHz (using only the right wing). This has been considered the highest frequency ultrasonic noise of the animal kingdom. The noise is imperceptible to human hearing, which is only capable of detecting up to 20 kHz.

Habitat

''Supersonus'' species inhabit tropical to lowland rainforest environments at heights between above the forest floor, often a few meters below the forest canopy. They live on and among the epiphytal growth such as

bromeliad The Bromeliaceae (the bromeliads) are a family of monocot flowering plants of about 80 genera and 3700 known species, native mainly to the tropical Americas, with several species found in the American subtropics and one in tropical west Africa, ...

s and

orchid Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

s on tree trunks and limbs. Populations of ''

Supersonus aequoreus ''Supersonus'' is a genus of Tettigoniidae, katydids in the order Orthoptera first described in 2014. The genus contains three species which are endemic to the rainforests of South America. Its name is an allusion to the fact that the males, i ...

'' are known on the islands of Gorgona and Gorgonilla in the National Natural Park (PNN) Gorgona, which are isolated off the mainland

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

n coast. The rainforest of the islands is similar to that of the mainland, with an average annual temperature of and rainfall averaging . The '' Supersonus piercei'' population is known from Watershed Pericos around the small community of El Salto, in the Valle del Cauca Department of mainland Colombia. Like the rainforest of National Natural Park (PNN) Gorgona, the Watershed Pericos forest is a lowland tropical rainforest though is location on the western edges of the Andean Cordillera result in more rainfall and temperature fluctuation. Rainfall amounts in the watershed range between and the temperature range is between annually. The population of '' Supersonus undulus'' inhabits a lowland rainforest environment at Tinalandia, in a private forest preserve between

Quito Quito (; qu, Kitu), formally San Francisco de Quito, is the capital and largest city of Ecuador, with an estimated population of 2.8 million in its urban area. It is also the capital of the province of Pichincha. Quito is located in a valley o ...

and Santo Domingo de los Colorado in

Pichincha Province Pichincha () is a province of Ecuador located in the northern Sierra region; its capital and largest city is Quito. It is bordered by Imbabura and Esmeraldas to the north, Cotopaxi and Santo Domingo de los Tsáchilas to the south, Napo and ...

. The elevation of the rainforest is , the highest of the three population habitats, with a forest typical of the western Andean slopes.

Taxonomy

Early specimens belonging to ''Supersonus'' were misidentified by researchers as specimens in the genus '' Arachnoscelis'', with early specimen records dating back to 1927. Redescription of the ''Arachnoscelis''

type species In zoological nomenclature, a type species (''species typica'') is the species name with which the name of a genus or subgenus is considered to be permanently taxonomically associated, i.e., the species that contains the biological type specimen ...

by Montealegre-Z ''et al''. (2013) highlighted the notable differences between the type species and a number of specimens tentatively identified to that genus. The genus ''Supersonus'' was first described by Sarria-S ''et al'' (2014) based on specimens collected from locations in Colombia and Ecuador. Efforts to collect specimens were first collected during night expeditions in which researches manually searched the rainforest undergrowth wearing headlamps. However, over a span of almost 15 years, very few specimens were recovered. Discovery of the adults' preferred living height allowed the entomologists to collect a much larger sample group. Sarria-S ''et al'' (2014) chose the genus name ''Supersonus'' as a combination of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

words "''super''" meaning "above" and "''sonus''" meaning "sound". The name is recognition of the high forest perches used by calling males of the genus, along with the calls ranging above 100 kHz, and in honor of the original designation for ultrasonic frequencies as "supersonic". Along with the genus description, three species were described in the 2014 type paper, ''

'', '' Supersonus piercei'', and '' Supersonus undulus''. Initially the genus was placed into the

Tettigoniidae Insects in the family Tettigoniidae are commonly called katydids (especially in North America), or bush crickets. They have previously been known as "long-horned grasshoppers". More than 8,000 species are known. Part of the suborder Ensifera, t ...

subfamily Listroscelidinae and considered close in relationship to ''Arachnoscelis''; however, further work led to a placement in the

Meconematinae Meconematinae is a subfamily of the bush crickets, with a worldwide distribution (but very limited representation in Antarctica and North America). Tribes and genera In the Orthoptera Species File, the following are listed: Meconematini Aut ...

tribe Phisidini.

Acoustics

At the time of description, the communication calls of male ''Supersonus'' species were identified as the highest frequency known from an arthropod, with calls reaching 115 kHz, 125 kHz, and 150 kHz in the three species. The typical frequency range for male katydid calls is between 5 kHz to 30 kHz, mostly within the human hearing range of 50 Hz to 20 kHz. The mating call of male ''S. aequoreus '' is the highest ultrasound calling carrier recorded in nature with a top frequency of 150 kHz. The calls are generated by the modified right forewings which form a cavity over the insect dorsum producing sharp resonances and elevated sound pressure levels for the calling.

References

{{taxonbar, from=Q17326457 Meconematinae Tettigoniidae genera Insects of South America