Genus Neduba

shieldback katydids

If this is the first time you’ve visited the Neduba genus page, continue until you reach “Neduba songs". Otherwise stop there unless you are interested in identifying Neduba species by their calling songs

Until 2021 the genus Neduba was systematically the least well known of the 27 genera of North American shieldback katydids (Tettigoniinae). However, with the publication in Zootaxa of a revision of Neduba by Cole et al. 2021, Neduba became, without doubt, the best known. This is because the seven authors of the revision were experts in their respective fields, and three in particular (Cole, Weissman, and Lightfoot) spent decades in field studies that included driving at night to collect specimens crossing little-used highways (species of Neduba are flightless). Specimens collected in this fashion were photographed in natural circumstances in the field and taken home to (1) record the calling songs of males under controlled temperatures, (2) remove a leg or two for deep freezing or preservation in ethanol (to use in genetic analysis), and (3) process these specimens for preserving body shape and colors (before pinning).

SINA’s genus page for Neduba is designed to help SINA users in two respects: (1) to expose them to the easy online access that SINA provides to Cole et al.’s 89-page, 2021 Neduba Revision and (2) to help SINA users who may become interested in identifying Neduba by the waveforms of their calling songs to better understand the basics of Neduba sound production.

The Introduction to Cole et al., pp. 4-12 is a well-written summary of the techniques and philosophy that underlie this revision. Because calling songs are the most likely way for users of SINA to detect the presence of Neduba species and to learn the identities of captured males, the section dealing with Song Recording and Analysis should be read. Begin on page 11 and end with the abbreviations of 11 fundamental characters of calling songs (on pp. 11-12).

What's on SINA species pages for Neduba

As usual, image position 1 is reserved for a thumbnail of a county-level distribution map. Image 2 (and subsequent images if appropriate) is of a healthy live specimen. As illustrated in Fig 1A-F and Fig. 2F-G, populations in the same habitat may occur in contrasting morphs (compare Fig 1A and 1B), populations of different species may have similar morphs (compare Fig. 1C and Fig. 1D), and these similar morphs may occur in different species from different localities (compare the male of N. sierranus from Madera Co., California, in Fig. 2F with the male of N. ambagiosa from Lake Co., California, in Fig. 2G. Nearly all pinned specimens depicted in the Revision were specially prepared as described in paragraph 3 of p. 8 except those holotypes that were described prior to when Cole, Weissman, and Lightfoot began their field work on Neduba (i.e., ca 30 years prior to 2021). This includes the holotype of N castanea (Scudder 1899}, N. sierranus (Rehn and Hebard 1911), and N. macnelli Rentz and Birchim 1968.

Neduba songs

Below are the high-resolution waveforms (in blue) of male calling songs of 20 of the 21 species recognized in the 2021 revision of the genus Neduba by Cole et al. They are copied here from Plates 4 and 5 of that revision. For each species, 4- and 1-sec wave forms, typical of the species, are shown. The order in which they are displayed is the same as used for the species treatments in Cole et al. 2021–i.e. in phylogenetic order.

Neduba carinata - carinate shieldback

Neduba oblongata - Mount Hamilton shieldback

Neduba ambagiosa - ambiguous shieldback

Neduba diabolica - Mount Diablo shieldback

Neduba longiplutea - Trinity Alps shieldback

Neduba radicata - Lake Tahoe shieldback

Neduba convexa - convex shieldback

Neduba cascadia - cascade shieldback

Neduba steindachneri - Steindachner's shieldback

Neduba propsti - Santa Catalina Island shieldback

Neduba castanea - chestnut shieldback

Neduba macneilli - MacNeill's shieldback

Neduba lucubrata - midnight shieldback

Neduba sierranus - Yosimite shieldback

Neduba arborea - arboreal shieldback

Neduba radocantans - raspy shieldback

Neduba inversa - King's Canyon shieldback

Neduba prorocantans - incessant shieldback

Neduba sequoia - Big Trees shieldback

Neduba duplocantans - doubletime shieldback

You are at the end of a table of 4- and 1-sec samples of the calling songs of the 20 extant Neduba species arranged in phylogenetic order. To go to the beginning of this table click here. To learn how a phylogenetic tree was derived for the species of Neduba, click here. [Unless you are currently interested in identifying Neduba species by their songs, you might delay this task until you are interested. For the waveforms in alphabetical order by species click here.]

How were Neduba species ordered phylogenetically?

This is explained on pages 8-10 of the Revision under the heading of Molecular Phylogenetic Analysis. It begins by describing how DNA was extracted, amplified, and sequenced and continues with text and tables that only an expert in molecular matters could understand. A “Bayesian consensus tree” was produced in three steps illustrated in Figures 3, 4, and 5 (on pages 13, 14, and 15). The final tree, with the six Species Groups color coded, is on page 15.

Click here to return to the beginning of the phylogenetic listing.

Neduba songs listed alphabetically by species names