We found and described this year the new cicada species Cicadivetta goumenissa Gogala et al., 2012 in just a small area in northern Peloponnese, Greece (Gogala et al. 2012). As mentioned in the paper, we first discovered this species in 2005 near the village of Goumenissa by its characteristic high pitched song with very fast repetitions of short echemes, interrupted by single long echemes. Until this year, we have never heard such sound pattern or ever collected this cicada in any other parts of the Peloponnese or elsewhere during our field work. Therefore, we decided to visit this area again this year (2012) to get more data on this peculiar cicada and to find out whether Cicadivetta goumenissa is really restricted just to this locality and possibly why.

We made a field trip to the Peloponnese from 9 to 11 of June, 2012. From previous visits to this area in 2005, 2006 and 2010 we knew that Cicadivetta goumenissa could not be found in July or later in the year.

We were searching for the presence of this cicada with bioacoustic equipment described below in localities around Kalavrita, Goumenissa, Pteri, Manesi, Vlasia, Dendra, Mirali, Priolithos, Lagovouni and on Mt. Erymanthos (see Table 1).

For the names and spelling of localities we follow the local inscriptions and transliterations used in the maps of the “Road Editions”, Nr. 4 and 5, Athens (1996).

The distribution map was created by GPS Visualizer (Schneider 2003–2012).

For acoustic detection and recording of songs we used the ultrasonic detector Pettersson D-200 (heterodyne system) with electret microphones of the same producer (frequency range 10–120 kHz), mounted in front of a Telinga reflector (57 cm diameter) or a Renault R-4 front light reflector and connected to the solid state recorders Marantz PMD-660 (sampling rate up to 48 kS) or Zoom H2 (sampling rate up to 96 kS). Due to the high frequency range (see Gogala et al. 2012), we would not have been able to hear the acoustic signals of this cicada species without ultrasonic detectors. For sound analyses we used RAVEN 1.4 (Cornell Lab of Ornithology) and AMADEUS Pro 2.0 (HairerSoft). We first localized cicadas acoustically and then, if possible, collected them with an entomological net.

For the nomenclature of cicadas we are following the publication of Puissant and Sueur (2010).

Collected specimens are deposited in the collection of the Slovenian Museum of Natural History (PMSL). Song recordings are deposited in the Slovenian Wildlife Sound Archive of the same museum. A sample of a selected recording is available on the web pages Songs of European singing cicadas (http://www.cicadasong.eu).

Why this cicada species is present only in such a restricted area, as described above, is one of the most puzzling questions concerning Cicadivetta goumenissa. We do not see any reason why this cicada would not be able to move to other places, disperse and acquire similar habitats nearby. One possible explanation is that they are, unlike other cicadas, in the larval stage bound to restricted plant species. However, we do not have yet any sound evidence for this hypothesis. Nevertheless, the distribution of endemic cicada species of Evia shows clear similarities with the distribution of endemic plant species on this island (Gogala et al. 2011). Some endemic plants of the Peloponnese are also restricted to small mountainous areas similar to that of the present cicada, as is described by Kit Tan and Iatrou (2006). But we do not know if any of them is in any way connected with this insect.

The type of vegetation in the distribution area of Cicadivetta goumenissa is everywhere very similar and can be described as garrigue or phrygana vegetation with Kermes Oak (Quercus coccifera) and other typical shrubs (Fig. 5).

Another possibility would be that this species was in the geological past confined to a small refugium and adapted to particular environmental conditions, which can be found only in the described habitat in this area. We have seen that one environmental parameter, the elevation of localities with Cicadivetta goumenissa, is in all cases very similar. The lowest value is according to our measurements 670 m, the highest 860 m and the average 750 m. Is here hidden a hint for its limited distribution?

In the paper with the original description of Cicadivetta goumenissa we have already mentioned the unusually high repetition rate of short echemes in the song (13-22 SE/s). In the southern part of Greece there are some other species with a high SE rate such as Cicadivetta flaveola (7-11 SE/s), which is found everywhere on the Peloponnese and in some other localities on the Greek mainland. This species occurs also in the distribution area of Cicadivetta goumenissa in sympatry with the latter. Another example is also Cicadivetta carayoni (Boulard, 1982), an endemic species of Crete with a similar rate of SE in its song (Trilar and Gogala 2010), which according to Puissant and Sueur (2010) also belongs to the same genus. But even many species of the genus Cicadetta – e.g. Cicadetta hannekeae Gogala, Drosopoulos & Trilar, 2008, Cicadetta macedonica Schedl, 1999, Cicadetta dirfica Gogala, Trilar & Drosopoulos, 2011 or Cicadetta kissavi Gogala, Drosopoulos & Trilar, 2009 - all occurring in various regions of Greece, share with these species long sequences of short echemes and some long echemes. Nevertheless, none of them reaches such a high repetition rate of short echemes in their calling songs, as does Cicadivetta goumenissa. Similarly high repetition rates of SE were reported for some western European species like some species of the genus Tettigettalna (Puissant and Sueur 2010).

Cicadivetta goumenissa occurs particularly in early June. It is, as expected, not restricted to the neighbourhood of the village Goumenissa, but can be found also in surrounding localities with a similar habitat. Nevertheless, we found it only in an area of about 15 ×25 km. From the new sound recordings here analysed we came to the conclusion that also the phrases with long echemes and without or with only a few short echemes are a regular component of its song and not just an exception.