AW Insect Book: Crickets, Grasshoppers & Locusts - Orthoptera

[ExFmem]

Blue-wing Sphingonotus scabriculus
Family: Acrididae Subfamily: Acridinae. Tribe: Sphingonotini


KTP

[ExFmem]

Agile Grasshopper Rhodesiana cuneicerca
Family: Acrididae. Subfamily Euryphyminae


Female, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Distribution
Endemic to Kalahari - Southern Africa, Botswana

Links:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/40980791?s ... b_contents

[ExFmem]

Burrowing Grasshopper, Band-wing Grasshopper Acrotylus diana
Family Acrididae. Subfamily: Oedipodinae. Tribe: Acrotylini


Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park

Description
Most species of the subfamily Oedipodinae, as implied by the common name, have a dark band crossing the hind wing somewhere between the middle and outer margin, most have the basal part (or "disc") of the wing colored. A few species have entirely dark or clear hind wings. The relative placement and shape of the dark band, as well as the color of the base is often of great help in identifying the species.

Members of the genus Acrotylus are burrowing grasshoppers, whose middle legs are elongated for digging. They are also medium-sized ( 20 - 30 mm) with large, bulging eyes, and hind legs banded with black.

Distribution
Southern Africa, Namibia

Habitat
Open habitat in savanna in loose shifting sand or hard gravelly soil, such as disturbed areas, e.g. road verges.

Biology
Members of Acrotylus are poor fliers, displaying banded hind wings in flight. They bury themselves when disturbed or in windy conditions, using the middle legs. Stridulate loudly. Egg pod with hard wall, lacking a cap. Rising spring temperatures break the resting period (diapause) of the eggs. There are 2 generations per year.

Environmental Impact
The grasshoppers of the tribe Acrotylini are entirely vegetarian and voracious feeders. They cause severe damage to various valued crops.



http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Commo ... ID=1104056

[nan]

Bark-mimic Sylvan Katydid Cymatomerella spilophora
Family Tettigoniidae. Subfamily Pseudophyllinae. Tribe Cymatomerini


Kruger National Park

Description
A cryptically grey-brown katydid. It can be recognized by the cuticle of the legs and thorax covered with dense dark dots, flattened femora with broad lobes on the ventral margins, and aposematically colored, yellow- and black-banded abdomen.
Size: Body length with wings 57 to 64 mm, females are larger.
Similar species: From Cymatomer denticollis it differs in the lack of two distinct lobes on the dorsal edge of mesothoracic femora, distinctly more curved ovipositor, and the abdominal sterna without the aposematic red coloration.

Distribution
It occurs across East and southern Africa, having been recorded from Tanzania, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa.

Habitat
Open woodland

Biology
C. spilophora exhibits defensive behavior, fanning its wings and displaying an aposematically colored abdomen if disturbed.
Males produce two types of calls, which they sometimes combine. Early in the evening the call is usually in the form of short bursts of syllables. Later at night the call often turns into a long, uninterrupted train of single syllables.

Links:
https://sixlegsphoto.files.wordpress.co ... vK4-70HoGQ
http://treatment.plazi.org/id/03D8878EF ... B9FC653243

[nan]

Bush Hopper possibly Pseudamatonga sp.
Family Euschmidtiidae. Subfamily Pseudoschmidtiinae. Tribe Penichrotini




Kruger National Park

Description
Bush hoppers of the family Euschmidtiidae are small (body length 20 mm), body flattened from side to side, antennae short. Many species short-winged or wingless. When magnified, inner end of hind tibiae shows a single spine.

Amatonga contains 2 species (A. inhacae and A. spicata), both medium-sized (body length 24 mm), green or brown, with characteristic cylindrical body tapering at both ends, very short antennae, and white cheek stripe. Sit with hind legs positioned at 90° to the body and flat on substrate.

The genus Pseudamatonga contains 3 species: A. carinicrus, A. elongata, A. strigilifer

Recorded from South Africa:
Pseudamatonga carinicrus South Africa Transvaal, Drakensberg, Shilouvane L
Pseudamatonga elongata South Africa ?

[ExFmem]

Banded Cricket, Decorated Cricket, Tropical House Cricket Gryllodes sigillatus
Family: Gryllidae Subfamily: Gryllinae




Female, Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park


Identification
They are 13 to 18 mm long, light yellowish-brown, somewhat flattened cricket. Males have wings that only half cover the abdomen and females are practically wingless. The space between the antennae is narrow (about the width of the basal segment of either antenna), and there is a single dark transverse band between the eyes.

Distribution
It is probably native to southwestern Asia but has been spread by commerce globally throughout the world.

Habitat
Common in urban areas and are most frequently found outdoors in or near paved areas. At night they issue from hiding places, such as crevices between pavement blocks, to forage (like roaches) and sing (like crickets). When they move into buildings, as they occasionally do, their songs reveal their presence.

Song
The calling song (690 Kb wav file) consists of a sequence of brief chirps, each with three principal pulses. Within a chirp, each pulse represents a closure of the wings while a scraper on one wing engages a toothed file on the other. The pulses of a chirp grow successively longer as 1/2, 3/4 and the entire file is used. Only males call.
Listen to their song

Mating
When a female is attracted to the song, courtship ensues. In the cricket, Gryllodes sigillatus, males transfer to females a two-part spermatophore containing a sperm-filled ampulla and a gelatinous, nutrient-rich spermatophylax (nuptial gift) on which the female feeds while the sperm pass into her internal sperm receptacle. The bigger the mass, the longer the sperm may have to enter, because the female usually eats all or part of the covering prior to removing the spermatophore proper.

Life Cycle
There is no special overwintering stage and generations are continuous. Depending on the temperature, development from egg to adult takes two to three months.

[BluTuna]

Stick Grasshopper Acrida sp.
Family: Acrididae. Subfamily: Acridinae

© BluTuna
Magaliesberg, Gauteng

In the region, there are 7 species in the genus Acrida.
They are large, green or straw-coloured, with strongly elongated, almost stick-like body. Antenna ensiform, as long as or slightly shorter than head and pronotum together. Head strongly elongated, acutely conical. Elytra and wings fully developed; elytra with dense reticulation.

[BluTuna]

Leaf Katydid Nymph possibly Phaneroptera sp.
Family: Tettigoniidae. Subfamily: Phaneropterinae. Tribe Phaneropterini

© BluTuna

© BluTuna
Garden in Johannesburg

Subfamily Phaneropterinae: Characters unifying Phaneropterinae typically include the globose head, unarmed prothoracic sternum, short and upturned ovipositor, and hindwings (if present) extending past the tegmina posteriorly.

Mating Behavior, Oviposition and Life History in Katydids
Male singing begins the mating sequence in virtually all katydids. The wings are raised and a dorsal scraper on the right tegmen is rubbed across a file on the underside of the left tegmen.
During copulation males of most species transfer a spermatophylax as part of the spermatophore, a meal that the female eats after the pair separates.
The mated female oviposits into plant tissue or soil. The Phaneropterinae differ from locusts in their habits of oviposition. Their eggs are rarely deposited in the earth or twigs but are either glued fast in double rows to the outer surface of slender twigs or are inserted in the edges of leaves. The Phaneropterinae exhibit a striking diversity of oviposition sites, including crevices in bark, cementing eggs onto twigs like overlapping roof shingles injecting them into the pith of twigs or leaf tissue between the epidermal layers (e.g. Phaneroptera), and even plastering the eggs into a mud "nest" onto stones and twigs.
The egg as the overwintering stage and a single generation per year is the most common life-history in species experiencing distinct seasons. In warmer climes there can be two annual bouts of oviposition resulting in two overlapping generations or continuously overlapping generations where all stages of the life cycle are present year round. After hatching, larvae pass through four to nine instars, depending on the species, before adulthood.

[Toko]

Porthetine Grasshopper
Family: Pamphagidae. Subfamily: Porthetinae

This one resembles species in the genus Pagopedilum or Cultrinatus

© Hawkeyes
Jozini Dam, KwaZulu-Natal

Grasshoppers in the family Pamphagidae are large (body length up to 70 mm), primitive, heavily built, normally cryptically coloured in dull earthy shades or superb stone-mimics. When viewed from above, the snout region of the head has a short furrow running towards the eyes (the fastigial furrow). Very broad, sword-shaped, triangular antennae, not round in cross section. Very rough body surface, often bearing tubercles and spines. Pronotum has a raised keel-like crest, which may be punctured by a series of small holes. Most males are able to stridulate.

71 species are known from the region.

Many species of African pamphagids, especially those belonging to the subfamily Porthetinae, exhibit sexual dimorphism. In most species the males are fully winged and usually can fly quite well. Females of all Porthetinae are completely wingless and even larger than the males. Their body is also more heavily sclerotized and often covered with hard ridges and spines. Surprisingly, despite the lack of wings, females are also capable of producing sound by rubbing their legs against the rough surface of the abdomen. The sound, which is much softer than that of the male, is used to startle potential predators; in some species immature individuals are also capable of such defensive stridulation.

[BluTuna]

Rain Locust Lamarckiana sp.
Family: Pamphagidae. Subfamily: Porthetinae

© BluTuna
Female



© BluTuna
Kruger National Park, Mopani area


Links: Genus Lamarckiana