How to use SINA

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Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets

This page is intended for those prompted to come to SINA because they are using (or are interested in using) the Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States. Here are two questions that such persons might pose:

How can I hear a song that is pictured in the Field Guide?

1. Starting at the SINA home page, click on the green button that takes you to the group (Crickets or Katydids) that includes the species whose song you wish to hear.

2. Now click on the green button that takes you to the "List of species" for the group you have selected.

3. At the top of the list, click on the name of the family or subfamily that includes the species whose song you wish to hear.

4. Now click on the name of the species whose song you wish to hear.

5. Click on the sound bar for the song image that is identical or similar to the one in the Field Guide.

For example, if you want to hear the song of the fall field cricket (third spectrogram from the top in the group of six on p. 196 of the Field Guide), this is the sequence of clicks you would use:

• 1. Crickets [green button]
• 2. List of species [green button]
• 3. Gryllinae - field crickets [name in list at top]
• 4. Gryllus pennsylvanicus - fall field cricket [name of species]
• 5. The only spectrogram for the fall field cricket is this one, which looks the same as the one in the Field Guide.

6. Click on the sound bar beneath the spectrogram to hear graphed song.

How can I find if more species of a genus or subfamily occur in the U.S. or Canada than the ones covered by the Field Guide?

(Perhaps the cricket or katydid you are trying to identify seems not to match any that are in the Field Guide.)

1. Go to the appropriate SINA checklist (crickets or katydids).

2. Compare the species listed under the genus, subfamily, or family that you are interested in with those that are included in the Field Guide.

3. Go to the species page or pages that may be of help.

For example, if you are trying to identify a katydid from southern Texas that seems to be an angle-wing katydid (=Microcentrum) but is too small to be the greater angle-wing (M. rhombifolium) and occurs beyond the limits of distribution of the other two species treated in the Field Guide, you would:

• 1. Go to the katydid checklist by clicking on the green button for Katydids and then the one for List of species.
• 2. Go to the genus Microcentrum in the list by clicking on Phaneropterinae - false katydids and then scrolling down to the genus (they are listed alphabetically).
• 3. There you will find six species of Microcentrum listed, meaning that three were omitted from the Field Guide. The three are M. latifrons, M. louisianum, and M. minus (the southwestern, Louisiana, and Texas angle-wings). Clicking through to the page for each species reveals that only M. minus occurs in southern Texas.