British Insects: the Genera of Orthoptera
| British Insects: the Genera of Orthoptera | |
Adults diurnal; 9–19 mm long (the females somewhat the longer); always green (the male forewings brownish), with minute dark speckling and a dorsal brownish stripe on the abdomen; almost apterous.
The antennae long, with well over 30 segments. The pronotum not dorsally keeled. Forewings much reduced in size (reduced to the stridulatory area in the male, and to short flat lobes in the female); much shorter than the abdomen. Hindwings absent. Foreleg tarsi 4 segmented; mid-leg tarsi 4 segmented; hindleg tarsi 4 segmented. The hind femora smooth. The ovipositor relatively long, with the valves articulated along their length and forming a single structure; 6–8 mm long (broad, and upwardly curved). The males stridulous. The sound production alary. Auditory organs located in the fore-tibiae. The male cerci without an inner tooth.
British representation. 1 species. Leptophyes punctatissima (Speckled Bush-cricket). Native. Southern Scotland, northern England, East Anglia, Wales, southeast England, central southern England, southwest England, Isle of Wight, Ireland, and Channel Islands.
Omnivorous but principally vegetarian (feeding mainly on dicot herbs and shrubs, especially nettles, honeysuckle, brambles and Teucrium scorodonia); found outdoors in natural habitats (inhabiting rough herbage and scrub in divers locations).
Classification. Suborder Ensifera; Superfamily Tettigonioidea; Phaneropteridae.
Comments. First and second tarsal segments smooth at the sides, not grooved.
Illustrations. • Leptophyes and Meconema (Lucas). • Conocephalidae, Meconematidae, Phaneropteridae, Tettigoniidae: Burr.
To view illustrations with detailed captions, go to the interactive key. This also offers full and partial descriptions, diagnostic descriptions, differences and similarities between taxa, lists of taxa exhibiting or lacking specified attributes, and distributions of character states within any set of taxa.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. British insects: the genera of Orthoptera. Version: 9th April 2007. http://delta-intkey.com’.
