Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae. Checklist Reserva Biologica San Francisco and Parque Nacional Podocarpus (Prov. Zamora-Chinchipe and Loja, S. Ecuador).

Within the highly diverse insects the family Tettigoniidae, bushcrickets or katydids, with currently around 6450 described species world-wide (Eades et al. 2007), forms a relatively small and representative group, well-suited for ecological studies. Most notably the species-specific calling songs of the males made the tettigoniids an ideal subject for a comparatively easy acoustic assessment in the very steep and difficult terrain at the ECSF. However, one of the results of the study is that most species from lower elevations call exceedingly sporadically, and in general calling activity increases with elevation. Inhabitants of the mostly cloud-covered elfin forests call more frequently and so have been considerably better assessed acoustically. Therefore they spuriously appear to be more abundant than those species that pay for living in a warmer tropical climate with the need to be wary of eavesdropping foliage-gleaning bats, which are mostly confined to lowland rain forest (only one species, Micronycteris megalotis, occurs up to about 2000 m; F. Matt, pers. comm.). Certain easily detectable midelevation species, with very arduously performed and continuous songs, indicate that most typical forest species occur at low or extremely low population densities. In contrast, species inhabiting grassland and disturbed areas are fairly abundant. Only one species, although short-winged and certainly not very mobile, seems to be specialized on fern and bamboo thickets of natural landslides (an undescribed member of the Agraeciini, cbt051). The checklist comprises slightly more than 100 species. The calling songs of 63 species were recorded. Most of them are exclusively nocturnal. The astonishing number of new species, and even genera, is probably due to the short collection history at higher elevations in the Andes, possibly combined with restricted distribution ranges of mountain species (of which this study provided some indications). Two very small and short-winged species (typical adaptations to their high-altitude habitat) might require their own subfamily.