An international workshop on Orthoptera bioacoustics, part of the TEOSS project (Training for the European Orthoptera Sound System), was held at the Civic Museum of Natural History in Verona, from 8 to 12 July. It was financed by the TETTRIS consortium and organised by non-TETTRIS members, WBA Project Srl (Verona), the University of Joannina (Greece) and the Environmental Education Association “El Bosque Animado” (Spain). In total, 25 scholars from different European and non-European countries participated in the first workshop of the TEOSS project.
Photo : Frank Machairas
Goal of the workshop
Widely used by traditional orthopterologists, the identification of emitted sounds is mostly done by experts in bioacoustics. Therefore, the aim of the course is to make bioacoustics more accessible to professional or non-professional naturalists, ecologists, field workers, by testing appropriate tools, recording and identifying species through recorded sounds. Sharing data is also an important point, and presentations on the usefulness and functionalities of Xeno-canto.org and Observation.org, two databases, were part of the course.
The training took place in different types of environments. For the fieldwork, the data were collected in urban environments (Adige Sud Park : grove, Pestrino and Giarol Grande woods) and extra-urban ones (Monte Tenda Park in Soave, Valpolicella Park in Fumane and in Alta Lessinia : San Giorgio – Conca dei Parpari), where different habitats are present (meadows, woods, cultivated areas). For the indoor work, the analysis were carried out mainly at the Natural History Museum of Verona.
Calliptamusx_siciliae_Rūta Starka
Gryllus_campestris _Rūta Starka
Tylopsis_liliifolia_Rūta Starka
The focus : ORTHOPTERA
During this workshop, we focus on the taxonomy of Orthoptera.
According to the European Red List (2016), there are an estimated 1082 Orthoptera species in Europe. Considered as European biodiversity hotspots, the Mediterranean peninsulas (Iberia, Italy, Balkans) and the Alpine region are interesting regions to study Crickets and Grasshoppers. This group is known for the use of stridulatory apparatus to produce sounds in different types of communication, such as courtship, rivalry and calling. A significative number of species is identified by their sounds rather than by their external morphological characters.
As a reminder, Orthoptera...
Orthoptera are divided into two suborders :
- Caelifera (true grasshoppers) with short antennae, short visible ovipositor and both males and females produce sounds by rubbing their hind legs against the wings.
- Ensifera (true crickets) with a pair of very long antennae, a visible ovipositor and cercis and males can produce a chirping sound by rubbing their wings together.
During the day we will hear most of the grasshoppers and in the evening and at night we will hear the bush-crickets and crickets.
Why give an interest to Bioacoustics ?
Bioacoustics, the science of biophony produced by fauna, can be used as part of the description of the world in a non-invasive way. The composition of communities can be assessed over time by detecting natural or anthropogenic changes to the original environment. Recording sounds can provide a representative view of a particular environment in order to study biodiversity and set up conservation management, without the need to catch individuals or to disturb the ecosystem.
FIRST DAY : Monday 8th of JULY
Activity 1 : Sound production in Orthoptera
Filippo Buzzeti presented the introductory conference of the workshop, including an overview of sound and in particular its role in wildlife communication.
In Orthoptera, the mechanism of sound production varies depending on the suborder. The terminology of a sound was defined with the differences between a pulse, a syllable, an echeme and an echeme sequence, including the variation in duration, interval and period. At the scale of the individual, the sound may vary according to the situation. Calling, rivalry, courtship, disturbance and flight songs are the main types of sound those insects use for communication.
Sound production is not constant. The temperature is one of the most important factors influencing it. Finally, a briefing on the field work was given on how to correctly register and record the individual found.
Activity 2 : Workflow for this workshop, field and lab methods
The workflow of collecting sound in TEOSS was presented by Baudewijn ODE.
The importance of bioacoustics in the conservation of Orthoptera as a way of collecting data for future studies was introduced. A future goal is to enable automatic species recognition based on sound recordings for a larger part of the European Orthoptera fauna by using the Xeno-Canto database. Currently, more good quality data are needed in Xeno-Canto, as well as increasing the capacity of participants to add their own records.
In order to identify the quality of the recordings, the pattern and tone of the sound production were explained to understand and criticize the oscillogram.
Activity 3 : RThoptera software
RThoptera, a new software dedicated to the bioacoustic of Orthoptera, was presented by its developper Francisco RIVAS FUENZALIDA.
Nowadays, sound analysis softwares, such as Avisoft Bioacoustics or Raven pro 1.6, are not free and quite expensive. F. Rivas developped a free tool that works with R (a programming language and command line software), RStudio (an Integrated Development Environment for R), Plotly (package library for interactive plots) and Shiny (a package for web apps). His solution standardizes the description of Orthoptera sounds and makes accessible the analysis of recordings. A small revolution in the world of bioacoustics.
Activity 4 : Gears Available At The Workshop
Cécile MALIGE explained the various devices available for the fieldwork, outlining their use and their differences.
- For the audible sound (20Hz to 20kHz), equipments, as vlog microphones (Videomic ME or Videomic GO II) are used with the smartphone, or without, as professional microphone and digital recorder (Tascam DR05x + Dodotronic) and professional digital recorder (Tascam DR40x).
- For ultrasonic sound (>20kHz), Echo-Meter(-PRO) are ultrasonic detectors that detect higher frequencies, and used with a specific application on the smartphone “Echo Meter Touch Bat Detector”.
Presentation_Gears available at the workshop_Malige
Vlog Microphone, VideoMic Me
Vlog microphone, VideoMic Go II
Tascam DR-40x
Tascam DR-05x
Ultrasonic detector, EchoMeter
Activity 5 : Practical teaching, Grabbing the gears (test material and first recordings)
The first practical lesson took place in the grasslands of Verona, Parco dell’ Adige Sud.
The participants chose their first equipment to test it in the field and to see how to make good quality recordings for the next days of fieldwork. The cooperation of people with different experiences allows for a first complete familiar approach.
A sample of the species found : Eupholidoptera schmidti, azami minor.
Activity 6 : Citizen science Observation.org and Xeno canto
Vincent KALKMAN presented a conference about advances about image and sound recognition applied to citizen science.
MAMBO, the Modern Approaches to the Monitoring of Biodiversity, is an image and sound recognition service available for all European species, which is used by over 100,000 citizen scientists annually and contributs tens of millions of high quality recordings. The 2024 image recognition model will include 45,000
taxa and will be trained on 43 million images of plants, fungi and animals. Training data comes from databases such as Observation.org (Europe) and Xeno-Canto.
Currently, there is still work to be done on image and sound recognition. Some species can’t be identified from just a photo or sound, missing and poor quality data is a problem, and more specialists are needed to validate the data.
Activity 7 : The Orthoptera fauna near Verona-part 1, ENSIFERA
Filippo BUZZETTI concluded the day with a presentation of the Orthoptera fauna to be found near Verona during the week.
He used “Grasshoppers & Crickets of Italy“, a book published by the WBA to illustrate his point. Written by Iorio C. and collegues and published in 2019, this photographic field guide is illustrated with hundred of images and makes the identification of this group of insects easier.
The conference focused on the suborder Ensifera and was accompanied by sounds directly played by Xeno-Canto.org platform.
SECOND DAY : Tuesday 9th of JULY
Activity 8 : Field work in Soave – Monte Tenda‘s xerothermic hills
On the second day, the first real field work started immediately. A new round of devices was distributed and samples were taken in Soave, on the xerothermic hills of Monte Tenda (45°25’16″N11°15’31″E, 141m).
To complete the practical work, Baudewijn ODE gave a presentation on other different types of microphones and recorders that he personally uses in the field.
A sample of the species found : Platycleis grisea, Decticus albifrons, Platycleis albopunctata.
Activity 9 : Practical teaching, Uploading records
After the fieldwork, the introduction to uploading the recordings made in the morning took place at Coffele Winery.
The participants created their account in Xeno-Canto, got acquainted with Audacity to modify their samples and uploaded them to the database, with “TEOSS1” in the comments. At the same time, the participants entered their data, with or without photos, in another database : Observation.org, in order to complete the records and to have the possibility to double-check their observations.
Activity 10 : The Orthoptera fauna near Verona-part 2, CAELIFERA
After the practical work, Filippo BUZZETTI presented the second part of the Orthoptera fauna of the Verona area that can be found during the week.
He used the same photographic field guide as in the first part of his lecture: “Grasshoppers & Crickets of Italy“. This session focused on the suborder Caelifera and was accompanied by sounds of the different species presented by Xeno-Canto.org.
Activity 11 : Night field work in Verona
As introduced before, Orthoptera species are active at different times of the day depending on their periodicity. A nocturnal fieldwork was organized near the hotel in the Parco Adige Sud (45°25’53″N11°02’02″E,45m), an urban wooded area, to record nocturnal species.
A sample of the species found : Eupholidoptera chabrieri, Eupholidoptera schmidti, Ruspolia nitidula.
THIRD DAY : Wednesday 10th of JULY
Activity 12 : Field work in Valpolicella
Participants had the opportunity to change equipment and make new recordings in a different environment. The third fieldwork took place in a semi-natural area with ponds, woods and dry fields in the Valpolicella Park (45°32’59″N10°53’49″E278m).
Some of the species found: Platycleis grisea, Decticus albifrons, Chorthippus brunneus.
Activity 13 : Talk & Lab at Verona Museum, Evaluate collection of sound recordings so far
To track the process, the new data were uploaded to Xeno-Canto and Observation.org at the museum.
After the lab work, a discussion was held to solve the potential problems that had arisen during the previous days and to improve the workflow for the next few days. At the end of the day, Baudewijn ODE chaired the discussion and took stock of the recordings downloaded from Xeno-Canto. At this point, there were 61 records, including Tettigonia, Roeseliana, Decticus, etc.
Activity 14 (optional) : Night field work in Verona
For the spare time, some participants chose to go into the field at night in Verona, at the Parco Adige Sud (45°25’53″N11°02’02″E,45m).
A sample of the species found : Ruspolia nitidula, Oecanthus pellucens.
FOURTH DAY : Thursday 11th of JULY
Activity 15 : Fieldwork in SAN GIORGIO
On the fourth day, the participants explored a new environment made up of alpine meadows and woods in San Giorgio (45°41’06″N11°05’03″E, 1500m), walking 5km along the dirt road towards Conca dei Parpari.
The change in altitude is an interesting factor to take into account, influencing the landscape and the conditions. The participants had the opportunity to change the equipment, to improve their skills or to choose their favourite.
A sample of the species found : Chorthippus brunneus, Stenobothrus lineatus, Poecilimon ornatus.
Activity 16 : Field lab at Restaurant Conca Dei Parpari, Short talks: Instructions for use of Observation.org apps, Analyzing sound recordings
The new recordings were uploaded at the Conca dei Parpari restaurant.
Meanwhile, Baudewijn ODE presented several applications that can be used to help analyse the recorded sound, including requirements, pros and cons for each, such as Audacity, Raven Lite (Cornell University), Kaleidoscope (wildlife acoustics), Sonic visualiser (Cornell University) and Rthoptera (Francisco RIVAS FUENZALIDA). His presentation included useful steps to get a clean recording and what not to do, such as not analysing compressed formats or preferring sounds with unfiltered recordings for uploading to Xeno-Canto.
As a bonus, Filippo Buzzeti and Cesare BRIZIO shared their personal experiences with RThoptera.
Marta VILLASAN, from Observation.org Spain and AEABA, gave a practical presentation on the use of the smartphone apps (iObs and Obsmapp) to record observations in the field. It’s interesting to know that this system doesn’t need an internet network to add data during the fieldwork. After the session, the observations can be uploaded to the global database. All the options of the application have been explained to give an overview of its use.
Activity 17 : Late afternoon field work around Conca dei parpari
To continue the exploration of the site, the late afternoon was dedicated to fieldwork around Conca dei Parpari. Different species were found to be more active than in the morning.
Some of the species found: Pholidoptera aptera, Gryllus campestris, Omocestus viridulus.
FIFTH DAY : Friday 12th of JULY
Activity 18 : Gaps on knowledge in Europe
The last day of the workshop started with a lecture by Baudewijn ODE on Gaps on Knowledge in Europe.
In Europe, there is a lack of data on Orthoptera compared to other taxonomies. In order to improve the number of data, specific activities have been undertaken in Europe, such as additional funding for the publication of existing European recordings, selection of larger datasets with easily accessible metadata or TEOSS.
Geographically, the available records on Xeno-Canto compared to the number of species known in some regions of non-Mediterranean Europe (82%), the Balkans & Cyprus (82%), Italy & Malta (72%), the Iberian Peninsula (69%), show that some challenges and improvements need to be made, especially in Italy and the Iberian Peninsula.
At the level of species in Europe, the family with the highest number of records is Tettigonidae (364 species, 73% of the total),
followed by Acrididae (93 species, 63% of the total). These two families produced significant sounds, which can explain the lack of records compared to other families such as Gryllotalpidae (4 species, 29% of the total), Monogoplistidae (0%).
Activity 19 : Validating records on Observation.org / Xeno canto
Vincent KALKMAN presented a conference on validating data sets on Observation.org / Xeno canto.
To ensure the quality of available data, to help train new orthopterists, or simply to learn more and have fun, validating data is the most important thing to have accurate data.
In Observation.org, validation rights for one or more taxonomic groups and a specific region (one or more countries) are done by specialists who can give you comments on your observations.
In Xeno-Canto, records are uploaded by both professionals and non-professionals. Your shared data will be discussed and revised by experts.
Activity 20 : WBA, World Biodiversity Association
Gianfranco CAODURO gave a presentation on the WBA.
Founded in 2004, the World Biodiversity Association aims to conserve biodiversity hotspots around the world. As a non-profit institut, the association gathers volunteers, who are professionals, such as botanists or naturalists, students and non-professionals. The WBA is involved in multiple projects, including research projects (project TEOSS), conservative projects (Biodiversity Friend), and educational projects (Biodiversity Bridges Project).
Activity 21 : Lab workflow, Uploading records
The last session on uploading records to Xeno-Canto and Observation.org took place in the museum. At the same time, people asked questions about their records and discussed how to improve the workflow with some suggestions and comments. Meanwhile, the participants shared their impressions of the different devices, the pros and cons, their preferences, the different types of use and the most important thing they learned.
Activity 22 : Personal experience on recording Orthoptera
Cesare BRIZIO made the last presentation of the workshop.
He referred to his personal experience in recording Orthoptera. To make good recordings, his first steps were to understand the discipline of bioacoustics, the physics of acoustics and the biology of Orthoptera in order to easily locate the individual, for example after atmospheric absorption or reflection. Cognitive biases, the difference between stimulus and
perception, can be made by yourself in the field while listening or recording. The choice of equipment is important, depending on budget and quality, and how it will convert the sound into a digital sound. Depending on your purpose, sound analysis may be one of your objectives. The choice of software to analyse, identify and compare your recordings were points that he talked about.
Many thanks to the organisers of the first Orthoptera workshop in the TEOSS project and to the participants who attended !
Photo : Karol Wałach
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation programme within the framework of the TETTRIs Project funded under Grant Agreement Nr 101081903.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or REA. Neither the European Union nor REA can be held responsible for them.