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Anaxipha (Saussure, 1874) are small, swordtail crickets found in much of eastern North America. Many species within the genus Anaxipha were only recently described and their calling songs characterized. However, little is known about their courtship songs or use of substrate-borne communication (drumming). This study is the first documentation of the existence of courtship songs and substrate-borne vibrational communication in the genus. Courtship songs and substrate-borne vibrational communication were first detected in the following species: Anaxipha exigua (Say, 1825), A. tinnulacita Walker & Funk, 2014, A. tinnulenta Walker & Funk, 2014, and A. thomasi Walker & Funk, 2014. When in the presence of a conspecific female, males of all four species perform courtship songs that are distinctly different in pattern of echeme delivery and syllable details compared to their respective calling songs. Additionally, males of all four species exhibited drumming behavior during courtship singing and variably during calling songs. Examination of video recordings of males drumming during courtship singing showed that they are apparently using the sclerotized portion of their mandibles to impact the substrate on which they are perched to create vibrations. Courtship song and drumming bout characteristics were statistically different among the four species studied here, although A. tinnulacita and A. tinnulenta were similar in some measurements. Drumming during calling songs was common only in A. tinnulacita, where drumming occurs predominately during the first forty percent and last twenty percent of the long echemes of calling songs. Additional study is needed to further explore the use of substrate-borne vibrational communication in this genus.

A new species of Oecanthus Serville, 1831 is described from Texas. Oecanthus walkeri n. sp. Collins & Symes occurs in southern Texas on Seep Willow (Baccharis salicipholia), Tepejuage (Leucaena iveruienta) and Sugar Hackberry (Celtis laevigata) trees. O. walkeri is currently known only from the Rio Grande Valley. Song analysis revealed a pulse pattern of constant trilling, similar to other constant trillers of the O.nigricornis species group, although the early evening calling pattern shows characteristics of the O.niveus group. This species was only found in trees, which is uncommon for the O.nigricornis group. The antennal markings are consistent with the O.nigricornis group; however, this is the first species of that group to have a pale abdomen, pedicel and scape, while also having black flagellae. Notes are provided on physical morphology, phenology, habitat and song pulse rates at given temperatures.

A new species of tree crickets, Oecanthus beameri sp. nov., is described from the gypsum dunes of White Sands National Park in New Mexico, United States. The new species is currently known only from the type locality, where it appears to be specific to the gypsophile plant hoary rosemary mint (Poliomintha incana). This new species has the narrowed tegmina and calling song that are found in the nigricornis species group. Although it has morphological similarities to O. quadripunctatus and O. celerinictus, there are differences in the subgenital plates, tegminal measurements, coloring, tibial markings, song frequency, and song pulse rate. This new species has been given the common name White Sands tree cricket. We provide a key to all species in the nigricornis group. Video and song recordings are available online as Suppl. materials 1–8.

A new species of Oecanthus is described from Mexico. Oecanthus mhatreae sp. nov. occurs in central Mexico in the understory of tropical deciduous forest. Oecanthus mhatreae sp. nov. is currently known only from the Corregidora area of the Mexican state of Querétaro. The widened tegmina and chirp-like brief trills song are consistent with some members of the rileyi species group; however, this new species of tree cricket is different in several aspects. The chirp-like brief trills are generally irregularly spaced, it does not have the expected grouping of the chirp pulses, and the colors of buff, light olive green, or light brown are vastly different than the four known pale green species in the rileyi species group of the Western Hemisphere. Morphology, habitat, and song details of this new species, with the common name of Otomi tree cricket, are provided in this paper. Video can be viewed at www.oecanthinae.com.

Abstract This article explores the use of the plot twist in screen fictions. This is a largely unexplored area, as interest in this phenomenon has largely focused on the so-called “plot twist movie,” which is an older narrative tradition. In order to explain this aesthetic phenomenon, it draws on the model of surprise originally proposed by the cognitive psychologists Wulf Meyer, Rainer Reisenzein, and Achim Schützwohl. Plot twists are characterized by three distinct but intimately intertwined temporal segments and their corresponding functions, which are explained by this model. The objective of this article is to explore how cognitive-emotional interactions shape the aesthetic viewing experience and to identify how that experience relates to shows’ artistic qualities. Game of Thrones (S01 and S03), Homeland (S01), and Westworld (S01) will be used as test cases. In each of the three plot segments, there are specific processes that distinguish the experience of surprise as an aesthetic phenomenon.

People can always count on Elliot Oring as a folkloristic provocateur par excellence. Their discipline needs much more vibrant contestation of ideas about theory. His invitation to engage \"clashes of opinion\" and answer the question \"What are the issues at stake in folkloristics today?\" can open up revitalizing discourse. Responding to this charge requires, however, a more expansive view of folkloristic theory and issues than Oring provides, along with recognition of theorizing occurring in both public folklore and academic spheres. In the natural and social sciences, the certainties of positivism have given way to post-positivist, relativistic and constructivist epistemologies. The most significant volume on folklore theory of the past decade, Grand Theory in Folkloristics, demonstrates that folklorists today typically build theory through on-the-ground, ethnographic explorations of expressive behavior. Such construction of theory is contrasted with abstracted, \"authoritarian\" grand theory presumed to have transcultural validity.

A new Anaxipha species is described from a locality in southeastern Arizona adjacent to the border with Mexico. The species is unique among the North American fauna by virtue of the broad tegmina, distinctive male genitalia, and calling song phrased in an irregular chirp with a variable pulse train rate. The possibility that the behavioral repertoire of this species includes aggressive song as well as calling song is discussed.

Islam has commanded European attention ever since Muhammad first preached his message of submission to the will of God. Scholars, theologians, travellers, politicians and theorists have produced a multiplicity of judgements on Islam as religious, political, cultural, social, economic, military and historical phenomenon, and continue to do so in the present. In 1978, Edward Said proposed a new historical paradigm for understanding post-Enlightenment Western conceptions of Islam, whereby orientalist ideology provided ‘a way of coming to terms with the Orient that is based on the Orient's special place in European Western experience’. ‘Orientalism’, once simply the academic study of ‘the East’, was thus defined as a composite set of Western methods for dominating the Orient. Said's challenge to the Western humanist tradition has provoked fierce historical and historiographical debate over both his theoretical framework and intellectual techniques. His opponents have condemned his binary discourse as ahistorical and monolithic, accused him of imprecise analysis and narrow literary focus, and pointed out theoretical inconsistencies, while supporters have hailed his work as an emancipatory prototype to transcend ‘the politics of difference’. As a result, the orientalist paradigm has been carried beyond literary analysis into multiple historical disciplines.

Thomas Walker died on Oct 21 after a long battle with cancer. He was a great music teacher who challenged his students to follow his example in teaching and in life.