Songs, genetics, and morphology: revealing the
taxonomic units in the European Cicadetta
cerdaniensis cicada group, with a description
of new taxa (Hemiptera: Cicadidae)
THOMAS HERTACH
1
*, TOMI TRILAR
2
, ELIZABETH J. WADE
3
, CHRIS SIMON
3,4
and
PETER NAGEL
1
1
Department of Environmental Sciences, Biogeography, University of Basel, St. Johanns-Vorstadt 10,
CH – 4056 Basel, Switzerland
2
Slovenian Museum of Natural History, Prešernova 20, SI – 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
3
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Connecticut, 75 North Eagleville
Road, Storrs, CT 06269, USA
4
School of Biological Sciences, Victoria University of Wellington, Wellington, New Zealand
Received 27 June 2014; revised 2 September 2014; accepted for publication 7 September 2014
Recent acoustic studies have revealed that Cicadetta montana (Scopoli, 1772), which was once thought to be a
single widespread Palaearctic cicada species, is actually a complex of many taxa. Although some song patterns
are very distinct, others comprise groups of closely related species, as in the case of Cicadetta cerdaniensis Pu-
issant & Boulard, 2000, Cicadetta cantilatrix Sueur & Puissant, 2007, and Cicadetta anapaistica Hertach, 2011.
Seven spatially or behaviourally isolated metapopulations belonging to this song group from Italy and Switzer-
land were detected and investigated using acoustic, molecular, and morphological methods. Taxonomic decisions
in this group are challenging because of a lack of truly diagnostic morphological characters, variously coloured
morphs, qualitatively intermediate song patterns in contact zones, and strong temperature dependence of song-
duration characters. Molecular genetic studies suggest rapid speciation resulting in incomplete lineage sorting and
introgression. It is only by using multiple sources of data that species can be delimited. The new species Cicadetta
sibillae sp. nov. and the new subspecies Cicadetta anapaistica lucana ssp. nov. were described using the mi-
crostructure of the male calling songs. Cicadetta sibillae sp. nov. occurs from southern Switzerland to central
Italy, and is the most abundant cicada in the Northern Apennine. Cicadetta anapaistica lucana ssp. nov. is
endemic to a small southern Italian distribution range, and seems to be threatened by habitat loss and fragmen-
tation. There is strong evidence that current distribution patterns and phylogenetic relationships of the Cicadetta
cerdaniensis group are linked to speciation events in Pleistocene glacial refugia in the Italian, Iberian, and Balkan
peninsulas.
© 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 173, 320–351.
doi: 10.1111/zoj.12212
ADDITIONAL KEYWORDS: allopatric speciation – bioacoustics – dimorphism – glacial refugia – hybridi-
zation – Italy – song variability – Switzerland – temperature dependency – timbal movements.
INTRODUCTION
Cicadas are well known for their songs, which males
produce by the movement of paired timbals. These songs
act as species-specific pre-mating barriers, and have
been used extensively to reveal hidden taxonomic di-
versity (e.g. Dugdale & Fleming, 1978; Gogala & Trilar,
2004; Quartau & Simões, 2006; Puissant & Sueur, 2010;
Marshall et al., 2011). Songs appear to evolve more
rapidly than morphological characters and provide a *Corresponding author. E-mail: thomas.hertach@unibas.ch
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 173, 320–351. With 12 figures
© 2015 The Linnean Society of London, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2015, 173, 320–351 320
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