title: Versatile aggressive mimicry of cicadas by an Australian predatory katydid.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In aggressive mimicry, a predator or parasite imitates a signal of another species in order to exploit the recipient of the signal. Some of the most remarkable examples of aggressive mimicry involve exploitation of a complex signal-response system by an unrelated predator species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have found that predatory Chlorobalius leucoviridis katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) can attract male cicadas (Hemiptera: Cicadidae) by imitating the species-specific wing-flick replies of sexually receptive female cicadas. This aggressive mimicry is accomplished both acoustically, with tegminal clicks, and visually, with synchronized body jerks. Remarkably, the katydids respond effectively to a variety of complex, species-specific Cicadettini songs, including songs of many cicada species that the predator has never encountered.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We propose that the versatility of aggressive mimicry in C. leucoviridis is accomplished by exploiting general design elements common to the songs of many acoustically signaling insects that use duets in pair-formation. Consideration of the mechanism of versatile mimicry in C. leucoviridis may illuminate processes driving the evolution of insect acoustic signals, which play a central role in reproductive isolation of populations and the formation of species.
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut, USA. david.marshall@uconn.edu
authors.forename: David C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Marshall
authors.forename: Kathy B R
authors.initials: KB
authors.lastname: Hill
mesh_terms: D000819:Animal Communication; D000818:Animals; D001315:Australia; D005075:Biological Evolution; D005260:Female; D006430:Hemiptera; D008297:Male; D009987:Orthoptera / Q000502:physiology*; D011235:Predatory Behavior; D012726:Sexual Behavior, Animal; D013045:Species Specificity