British Insects: the Genera of Orthoptera
British Insects: the Genera of Orthoptera |
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Locusta auctt., non Linnaeus; Phasgonura Stephens.
Adults nocturnal and diurnal; 40–54 mm long; grass-green, with green eyes and a brown dorsal steak on the head, pronotum, and hind margins of the forewings.
The antennae long, with well over 30 segments. The pronotum not dorsally keeled. Forewings well developed; greatly exceeding the abdomen when folded. Hindwings fully developed. Forelegs conventional. 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; 18–24 mm long (slightly downcurved). The males stridulous. The sound production alary. Auditory organs located in the fore-tibiae.
British representation. 1 species. Tettigonia viridissima (Great Green grasshopper, Great Green Bush-cricket). Native. English Midlands, East Anglia, Wales, southeast England, central southern England, southwest England, Isle of Wight, and Channel Islands.
Widely omnivorous (feeding on grasses, shrubby and herbaceous dicots, and smaller insects); found outdoors in natural habitats (often associated with coarse vegetation on waste land, in warm sunny locations).
Classification. Suborder Ensifera; Superfamily Tettigonioidea; Tettigoniidae.
Comments. The first and second tarsal segments laterally grooved.
Illustrations. • Decticus and Tettigonia (Lucas). • Conocephalidae, Meconematidae, Phaneropteridae, Tettigoniidae: Burr.
To view the 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: 18th September 2008. http://delta-intkey.com’.
