8 s of calling; from Fair Hill, Cecil County, Md.; 21°C. Recorded in the field by David H. Funk (R09_0155); used by permission.
16 s of calling; from Landenberg, Chester County, Pa.; 20°C. Recorded in the laboratory by David H. Funk (R09_0302); used by permission.
Click on sound bar to hear graphed song.
Sound spectrogram of 2 s of calling at 21°C (from David H. Funk R09_0155). Dominant frequency 6.6 kHz.
Click on sound bar to hear graphed song.
Sound spectrogram of 2 s of calling at 20°C (from David H. Funk R09_0302). Dominant frequency 6.9 kHz.
Remarks:
During the current (2019) update of SINA, an email from Dr. Axel Hockkirch asked for information on N. variegatus. In response, he was referred to this page which at that time had only one image of the species and no calling song. That image, a Delaware male photographed by David Funk prompted an email to Funk asking if he had recordings of N. variegatus that could be added to SINA. In response, he sent the wav files of the calling songs of two males made available above: 8s of one from Cecil County, Maryland, and 16s of one from Chester County, Pennsylvania. He also sent images of a male and female of the species photographed against a white background. Concerning habitat, he noted that he had only found the species “on sandy or cobbley berms along medium sized streams (5 or more meters wide).”
The pulse rates for the two recordings are easily determined by counting the pulses visible in each second of each sonogram. For the Maryland recording the two counts are 32 and 32; for the Pennsylvania one, the counts are 35½ and 35½. Because the temperature of a calling cricket is more reliably known in laboratory recordings than in field recordings, the relationship of pulse rate to temperature for the Pennsylvania caller ought to be more reliably estimated by its recording than is the pulse rate for the Maryland caller by its recording.
Song:
Similar to Allonemobius allardi, "but higher pitched, weaker, vibrato more rapid and not perceptible at high temperatures" (Fulton 1932).
Habitat:
"...gravel beds and sandy stream banks, not in thick woods" (Fulton 1932).
Season:
In North Carolina, "late summer and fall" (Fulton 1932); in Raleigh, NC, September and October (Fulton 1951).
