Identification of tibicen cicada species by a principal components analysis of their songs

Abstract

Specific identification of three Tibicen cicadas, T.japonicus, T.flammatus and T. bihamatus, by their chirping sounds was carried out using Principal Components Analysis (PCA). High quality recordings of each species were used as the standards. The peak and mean frequencies and the pulse rate were used as the variables. Out of 12 samples recorded in the fields one fell in the vicinity of T. japonicus and all other were positioned near T. bihamatus. Then the cluster analysis of the PCA scores clearly separated each species and allocated the samples in the same way.