AW Insect Book: Crickets, Grasshoppers & Locusts - Orthoptera

[Toko]

Armoured Ground Cricket, Corn Cricket, Armored Ground Katydid Acanthoplus discoidales
Family Tettigoniidae. Subfamily Heterodinae


Kruger National Park, S41 © Bushcraft

© Super Mongoose

© Super Mongoose
Augrabies Falls National Park

© Super Mongoose

© Super Mongoose
Augrabies Falls National Park

© mposthumus
Kruger National Park

© Heksie
Kruger National Park, H14

© Kesheshe
Kruger National Park

© PJL
Kruger National Park, Satara

© Mel
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Description
A wide-bodied, flightless species that typically grows to a body length of about 5 cm. The pronotum bears several sharp, conical spines. The mandibles, or main biting jaws, are powerful; they can inflict a painful nip and they permit the insect to feed on material such as tough herbage or carrion.
This species is omnivorous and feeds opportunistically on many different foods. Especially when their diet is deficient in protein and salt, members of the species commonly become cannibalistic
These Katydids have an arsenal of defence mechanisms in response to attack. Males but not females can stridulate when attacked, while both sexes will bite and regurgitate or squirt toxic blood which in insects is called haemolymph, from gaps in their exoskeleton on their backs and under their legs upon provocation.

Similar species:
Acanthoplus armativentris has two spines on the front edge of the pronotum whereas these are absent in A. discoidalis.


Distribution

A discoidales.jpg (64.68 KiB) Viewed 1875 times

The Armoured Katydid (Acanthoplus discoidalis) is fairly widespread throughout Botswana, Namibia, and Northern Cape Province, South Africa. Small populations are also found in the Western and Eastern Cape Provinces of South Africa.

Habitat
The species is generally associated with very dry, sparsely vegetated habitats, including the Kalahari and Namib Deserts, Succulent and Nama Karoo and Fynbos biomes.

Links: Checklist: The Armoured Crickets (Orthoptera: Bradyporidae) of South Africa; Walker, Matt (28 July 2009). "Insect defence all blood and guts". BBC Earth News.

[Toko]

Rain Locust Lamarckiana sp. possibly L. bolivariana
Family: Pamphagidae. Subfamily: Porthetinae

© mposthumus
Female

© mposthumus
Kruger National Park, Mopani

Description
Large (body length 60-100 mm), generally uniformly grey, with very flattened antennae, and cream cheek and prothoracic stripe. Thick hind legs, covered with sharp spines. There is a hearing organ on either side of the thorax. Porthetinae exhibit a remarkable sexual dimorphism.
Males are winged with smoky black hind wings, they can fly quite well.
Females are wingless and even larger than the males. Their body is also more heavily sclerotized and covered with hard ridges and spines.

Distribution
Southern Africa.

Biology
Lamarckiana are nocturnal. Males call from trees by night.
Females are also capable of producing sound by rubbing their legs against the rough surface of the abdomen. The sound is used to startle potential predators.

Links:
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 0/download
http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Commo ... ID=1117229
Genus Lamarckiana

[Toko]

Shieldback Locust
Family: Pamphagidae. Subfamily: Porthetinae

Female © mposthumus
Kruger National Park, S128 - between Tshokwane and Lower Sabie

[Toko]

King Cricket possibly Borborothus sp.
Family: Anostostomatidae

© mposthumus

© mposthumus
Male, Kruger National Park, Pretoriuskop area

44 genera of African Anostostomatidae in 7 or 8 valid genera have been described. Roughly half of these are from South Africa. The members of this family used to be placed in either the families Stenopelmatidae, Henicidae or Mimnermidae. The most well-known species in South Africa is the 'Parktown prawn' Libanasidus vittatus which is commonly encountered in people's homes in Johannesburg. Members of the genus Henicus are almost entirely limited to the Western and Eastern Cape and recent investigations by Peter Johns have shown that there are many undescribed species and that the species of this genus tend to be highly endemic with relatively small distributions.
All species are nocturnal omnivores and most adult males have enlarged mandibles.
12 species of Nasidius have been described, but there at least another 23 undescribed species.

Links:
https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/ite ... 0/mode/1up
Laurence H. Field: The Biology of Wetas, King Crickets and Their Allies; H Brettschneider: Systematics of southern African Anostostomatidae (PDF)

[Toko]

King Cricket sp
Family: Anostostomatidae

Another unidentified King Cricket species, about 8 cm long!

© Richprins
Male, Nelspruit/Mbombela, Mpumalanga

There are several species of King Cricket in the Lowveld. They are nocturnal.

[BluTuna]

Oblong-eyed Leaf Katydid sp Eurycorypha sp
Family: Tettigoniidae. Subfamily: Phaneropterinae

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Hartebeespoort Dam area, North West Province

Eurycorypha Leaf katydids are medium-sized (body length 22 mm), with oval and elongated eyes. Yellow stripe usually through eye. Open 'ears' on fore tibiae in males. Tegmina bend sharply, lending a hump-backed appearance.
The genus is indigenous to Sub-Saharan Africa and Madagascar. It is the most species-rich Phaneropterinae genus in Africa.

[Toko]

Elegant Grasshopper Zonocerus elegans
Family: Pyrgomorphidae

© serval
Kruger National Park

Foam grasshoppers are small to large grasshoppers distinguished by a combination of bright colours, conical head, fastigial furrow, and a pair of warty crescents on either side of the fastigial furrow. Many have warning coloration and can produce a foamy defensive secretion; a few can produce sound. Most feed on herbs or shrubs, but rarely on grasses. Mostly gregarious at all stages.

© Hawkeyes
Lake Eland Game Reserve, KwaZulu-Natal



© Flutterby
Rietvlei Nature Reserve, Gauteng


© PJL
Nymph, Addo Elephant National Park


http://www.biodiversityexplorer.info/or ... legans.htm

[ExFmem]

Rain Locust Lamarckiana sparrmani or L. cucullata
Family Pamphagidae. Subfamily Porthetinae


Male, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Genus Lamarckiana
According to Dirsh (1958) the main characters of the genus Lamarckiana are the 5-segmented flagellum of the antenna, not expanded margins of the hind femur with an excurved upper margin, and the pronotal carina excised at the basal transverse sulcus in males and crossed by it in females. Main differences from Lobosceliana are in the number of segments of the flagellum (4 in Lobosceliana), the upper margin of the hind femora (straight and expanded in Lobosceliana) and the presence of the transversal sulcus (absent in Lobosceliana). However, the number of segments in the flagellum revealed to be a fairly variable character in Lobosceliana (see also Hemp 2013).


Links:
http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Commo ... ID=1117239
https://www.researchgate.net/publicatio ... 0/download
http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/ ... 04-022.pdf

[ExFmem]

Tree Locust Anacridium moestum
Suborder Caelifera. Infraorder Acrididea. Superfamily Acridoidea. Family Acrididae. Subfamily Cyrtacanthacridinae. Tribe Cyrtacanthacridini.

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

© Tina
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, Grootkolk

© ExFmem
Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Links:
http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Commo ... ID=1112477
https://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261 ... 01-001.pdf

[ExFmem]

Slender Digging Grasshopper, Slender Red-winged Grasshopper Acrotylus patruelis
Family: Acrididae. Subfamily: Oedipodinae. Tribe: Acrotylini


KTP


Links:
https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15431178/71713869