echeme

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Ancient Greek ἤχημα (ḗkhēma, “a sound”), from ἠχέω (ēkhéō, “I make sound, I chirp”) +‎ -μᾰ (-mă, forming nouns form verbal stems). Introduced by Broughton (1976).

Pronunciation

• (Recommended by Broughton) enPR: ĕk′ēm, IPA^(key): /ˈɛk.iːm/

Noun

echeme (plural echemes)

1. (bioacoustics, entomology) A unit of sound produced by insects that can be broken down into multiple physically more basic sound units (syllables).
   • [1976, W. B. Broughton, “Proposal for a new term ‘echeme’ to replace ‘chirp’ in animal acoustics”, in Physiological Entomology, volume 1, number 2, →DOI, pages 103–106:

     This new term, then, is echeme, defined as: a first-order assemblage of syllables.]

   • 1978 July, William Latimer, Aspects of song interaction between the closely related bush cricket genera Platycleis and Metrioptera‎^[1], DPhil Thesis, City of London Polytechnic (British Library’s microfilm copy), page 44:

     The general pattern of the low-frequency sweep is repeated in each echeme and does not appear to change as the insect matures […] .

   • 1988, D.R. Ragge, W.J. Reynolds, “The songs and taxonomy of the grasshoppers of the Chorthippus biguttulus group in the Iberian Peninsula (Orthoptera: Acrididae)”, in Journal of Natural History, volume 22, number 4, →DOI, pages 897–929:

     [T]he echemes of yersini have a uniform sound, lacking the 'metallic' unevenness characteristic of the echeme-sequences of biguttulus.

   • 2021, Wilbur L. Hershberger, “Calling and courtship songs of the rare, robust ground cricket, Allonemobius walkeri”, in Journal of Orthoptera Research, volume 30, number 1, →DOI, pages 81–85:

     In sunlight, echemes are shorter, but echeme intervals are longer.