bush crickets
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2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
Hayato Takada ◽  
Akiyoshi Sato ◽  
Setsuko Katsuta

Abstract Knowledge of food habits is essential for understanding the life history of a species; however, such information about the enigmatic Murina genus of bats is little known. In this study, we examined the food habits of Murina hilgendorfi and Murina ussuriensis over four years in Hayakawa, central Japan, using traditional morphological fecal analysis. Fragments of arthropods of six orders (five identified families), and of five orders (five identified families), were found in the feces of M. hilgendorfi and M. ussuriensis, respectively. Both species consumed wingless arthropods (caterpillars and spiders), insects that rarely fly (ground beetles and bush crickets), or diurnal insects (dragonflies and hoverflies; i.e., that are resting at night) during the night, which is a clear indication of gleaning behavior in these bats. In spring, the large-bodied M. hilgendorfi more frequently consumed hard-bodied insects such as beetles and bush crickets, whereas the small-bodied M. ussuriensis more frequently consumed soft-bodied insects such as caterpillars, moths, spiders, and dipterans, suggesting that the body size difference influences their food habits, which may have contributed to food resource partitioning between these closely related bats. For M. hilgendorfi, beetles were the main prey in spring and autumn, while caterpillars and grasshoppers were more frequently consumed in spring and autumn, respectively, suggesting that they may have changed prey items according to seasonal fluctuations in food availability. To our knowledge, this study provides the first record of differences in the food habits of these two species.


Author(s):  
Aileen C. van der Mescht ◽  
James S. Pryke ◽  
René Gaigher ◽  
Michael J. Samways

Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 5005 (2) ◽  
pp. 101-144
Author(s):  
KLAUS-GERHARD HELLER ◽  
ED BAKER ◽  
SIGFRID INGRISCH ◽  
OLGA KORSUNOVSKAYA ◽  
CHUN-XIANG LIU ◽  
...  

Bush-crickets (or katydids) of the genus Mecopoda are relatively large insects well-known for their sounds for centuries. Bioacoustic studies in India and China revealed a surprisingly large diversity of sound patterns. We extend these studies into the tropics of South East Asia using integrative taxonomy, combining song analysis, morphology of sound producing organs and male genitalia as well as chromosomes, to get a better understanding of the phylogeny and evolution of this widespread group. Besides the closely related genus Eumecopoda, the genus Mecopoda contains some isolated species and a large group of species which we assign to the Mecopoda elongata group. Some species of this group have broad tegmina and stridulatory files with different tooth spacing patterns and produce continuous, often relatively complicated, trill-like songs. The species of another subgroup with narrower wings have all similar files. Their songs consist of echemes (groups of syllables) which differ in syllable number and syllable repetition rate and also in echeme repetition rate. Our results show that South East Asia harbours a large and certainly not yet fully explored number of Mecopoda species which are most easily and clearly identified by song. Based on the data, five new forms are described: Mecopoda mahindai Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda paucidens Ingrisch, Su & Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda sismondoi Heller sp. nov., Mecopoda niponensis vietnamica Heller & Korsunovskaya subsp. nov., Eumecopoda cyrtoscelis zhantievi Heller subsp. nov. In addition, some taxonomic changes are proposed: Eumecopoda Hebard, 1922 stat. rev., Paramecopoda Gorochov, 2020, syn. nov. of Eumecopoda Hebard, 1922, Mecopoda javana (Johansson, 1763) stat. nov. (neotype selected) with M. javana minahasa Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., M. javana darevskyi Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., M. javana buru Gorochov, 2020 stat. nov., Mecopoda macassariensis (Haan, 1843) stat. rev., Mecopoda ampla malayensis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., Mecopada ampla javaensis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., Mecopoda fallax aequatorialis Gorochov, 2020 syn. nov., the last three are all synonyms of Mecopoda himalaya Liu, 2020, Mecopoda yunnana Liu 2020, stat. nov.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4991 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-115
Author(s):  
KLAUS-GERHARD HELLER ◽  
GELLÉRT PUSKÁS ◽  
GERGELY SZÖVÉNYI ◽  
DRAGAN P. CHOBANOV

With nearly 60 described forms Uromenus is the most species-rich genus of the tribe Ephippigerini, a west Palearctic group of flightless bush-crickets (katydids). As it is typical for bush-crickets, Uromenus males produce species-specific calling songs to attract females prepared to mate. These insects are relatively large and their songs have always components audible to humans. Nevertheless, acoustical information are available only for few species. Also the phylogenetic relationships of species and species groups are poorly known. In this paper we present new data on the song and morphology of several species (U. dyrrhachiacus, U. elegans, U. finoti, U. galvagnii, U. robustus, U. tobboganensis and U. innocentii) and give a review of all published acoustical data. Judging from the still few data, as in other Ephippigerini the song patterns often seem to contain species-group characteristics making them candidates to be used in phylogenetic studies. Additionally, we have studied the female stridulatory organs which are unique in structure in Ephippigerini and completely different from those of the males. Despite in Uromenus used only for defensive stridulation, possibly species-specific similarities in structure between males and females exist.  


2021 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-94
Author(s):  
Klaus-Gerhard Heller ◽  
Matthias Helb

The genus Dicranostomus belongs to the very few Orthoptera with elongated mandibular processes, here called tusks. However, it is also one of the least studied genera from whose two species only one female and two males have been known so far. We present additional material from both species and sexes that confirms that the males have the relatively longest (2–2.8 times pronotal length) tusks of all Orthoptera. Surprisingly, the females of both species differ in this character: females of D. monoceros have tusks and those of D. nitidus do not. Based on a comparison with other species, we hypothesize that the species use holes that males can defend and use to monopolize the females.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thorin Jonsson ◽  
Fernando Montealegre-Z ◽  
Carl D. Soulsbury ◽  
Daniel Robert

Male crickets and their close relatives bush-crickets (Gryllidae and Tettigoniidae, respectively; Orthoptera and Ensifera) attract distant females by producing loud calling songs. In both families, sound is produced by stridulation, the rubbing together of their forewings, whereby the plectrum of one wing is rapidly passed over a serrated file on the opposite wing. The resulting oscillations are amplified by resonating wing regions. A striking difference between Gryllids and Tettigoniids lies in wing morphology and composition of song frequency: Crickets produce mostly low-frequency (2–8 kHz), pure tone signals with highly bilaterally symmetric wings, while bush-crickets use asymmetric wings for high-frequency (10–150 kHz) calls. The evolutionary reasons for this acoustic divergence are unknown. Here, we study the wings of actively stridulating male field-crickets (Gryllus bimaculatus) and present vibro-acoustic data suggesting a biophysical restriction to low-frequency song. Using laser Doppler vibrometry (LDV) and brain-injections of the neuroactivator eserine to elicit singing, we recorded the topography of wing vibrations during active sound production. In freely vibrating wings, each wing region resonated differently. When wings coupled during stridulation, these differences vanished and all wing regions resonated at an identical frequency, that of the narrow-band song (∼5 kHz). However, imperfections in wing-coupling caused phase shifts between both resonators, introducing destructive interference with increasing phase differences. The effect of destructive interference (amplitude reduction) was observed to be minimal at the typical low frequency calls of crickets, and by maintaining the vibration phase difference below 80°. We show that, with the imperfect coupling observed, cricket song production with two symmetric resonators becomes acoustically inefficient above ∼8 kHz. This evidence reveals a bio-mechanical constraint on the production of high-frequency song whilst using two coupled resonators and provides an explanation as to why crickets, unlike bush-crickets, have not evolved to exploit ultrasonic calling songs.


Heredity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabe Winter ◽  
Mahendra Varma ◽  
Holger Schielzeth

AbstractThe green–brown polymorphism of grasshoppers and bush-crickets represents one of the most penetrant polymorphisms in any group of organisms. This poses the question of why the polymorphism is shared across species and how it is maintained. There is mixed evidence for whether and in which species it is environmentally or genetically determined in Orthoptera. We report breeding experiments with the steppe grasshopper Chorthippus dorsatus, a polymorphic species for the presence and distribution of green body parts. Morph ratios did not differ between sexes, and we find no evidence that the rearing environment (crowding and habitat complexity) affected the polymorphism. However, we find strong evidence for genetic determination for the presence/absence of green and its distribution. Results are most parsimoniously explained by three autosomal loci with two alleles each and simple dominance effects: one locus influencing the ability to show green color, with a dominant allele for green; a locus with a recessive allele suppressing green on the dorsal side; and a locus with a recessive allele suppressing green on the lateral side. Our results contribute to the emerging contrast between the simple genetic inheritance of green–brown polymorphisms in the subfamily Gomphocerinae and environmental determination in other subfamilies of grasshoppers. In three out of four species of Gomphocerinae studied so far, the results suggest one or a few loci with a dominance of alleles allowing the occurrence of green. This supports the idea that brown individuals differ from green individuals by homozygosity for loss-of-function alleles preventing green pigment production or deposition.


Author(s):  
Slobodan Ivković ◽  
Josip Skejo

Vlasina Plateau is a highland bog situated in the mountains of southeastern Serbia, close to the border with Bulgaria. From a conservation point of view, bogs are one of the most important habitats and they are considered as threatened all across Europe. As the Orthopteran fauna of southern European bogs has not been studied in detail, we decided to make an inventory of grasshoppers and bush-crickets of Vlasina region. During eight years (2012 to 2019) of orthopterological study, 63 species were recorded at Vlasina Plateau. Interesting findings are those of Balkan Field Grasshopper (Chorthippus bornhalmi) and Bures’ Bush-cricket (Isophya bureschi) recently reported as first for Serbia, as well as regionally rare Serbian Pygmy Bush-cricket (Anterastes serbicus), Domogled Meadow Bush-cricket (Broughtonia domogledi), Short-winged Cone-head (Conocephalus dorsalis), Club-legged Grasshopper (Gomphocerus sibiricus), Fieber’s Walking Bush-cricket (Psorodonotus fieberi) and Pygmy Toothed Grasshopper (Stenobothrus crassipes). In addition, we provided new distributional and bioacoustic data for Poecilimon pseudornatus and I. bureschi.


Author(s):  
Dragan Chobanov ◽  
Boyan Milchev

Three species of Bush-crickets (Orthoptera) of conservation value or poorly known were found in the Eurasian Eagle Owl food in southeastern Bulgaria. Their localities are new country records and two of them cover Natura 2000 SCI zones. The repeated predation on Bradyporus macrogaster in UTM square MG99 confirms the potential of this area for a new Natura 2000 site.


Zootaxa ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4894 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-300
Author(s):  
FARHAD A. KHUDHUR ◽  
SORAN H. AHMED

Genus Saga Charpentier, 1825 along with four other genera (Clonia Stål, 1855; Cloniella Kaltenbach, 1971; Emptera Saussure, 1888 and Peringueyella Saussure, 1888) comprises the tettigoniid subfamily Saginae. These genera are distributed throughout three separated biogeographical zones; in the South-Southeast of Africa, genus Emptera in India and genus Saga in Palaearctic region (Kolics et.al., 2012 & Şirin et.al., 2019). The predatory bush crickets of the genus Saga are the largest Palearctic orthopterans, with 16 species, of which ten inhabit Asia (Azerbaijan, Armenia, Caucasus, Turkey, Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Iran, and Iraq), the rest occur in Europe (one of them ranging to Western Siberia) (Kaltenbach, 1964, 1967, Bader & Massa, 2001, Şirin et.al., 2019 & Cigliano et al. 2020). Six of these species are endemic to Turkey (Saga beiri, S. capadocica, S. hakkarica, S. longicaudata, S. puella and S. rhodiensis) (Şirin et.al., 2019), while the six European taxa are (S. natoliae, S. pedo, S. campbelli, S. gracilis, S. hellenica and S. rammei) (Kolics et.al., 2012). In the East Mediterranean countries S. ledereri occur in Syria and Lebanon, S. ornata in Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria (Kaltenbach, 1964, 1967 Cigliano et al. 2020). Among the non-European Saga species, S. ephippigera has the broadest geographic range, extending from Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Syria to Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Caucasus, Transcaucasus and Karabagh, while S. syriaca is found in Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Iraq (Kirby,1906, Kaltenbach, 1967, Bader & Massa, 2001, Arsalan & Candan, 2019, Şirin et.al., 2019 & Cigliano et al. 2020). 


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