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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: 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 (the insects flightless). 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 of the males alary, involving scraping the forewings together, the latter being structurally modified to this end. Auditory organs located in the fore-tibiae (sometimes partly covered by a ventral flap). 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). 3 and 4, Leptophyes punctatissima (Speckled Bush-cricket): male (3) and female. 5, Meconema thalassinum (Oak Bush-cricket), female. From Lucas (1920), with approximate lengths added. • Conocephalidae, Meconematidae, Phaneropteridae, Tettigoniidae: Burr. PHANEROPTERIDAE. 8, Leptophyes punctatissima. MECONEMATIDAE. 9, Meconema thalassinum. CONOCEPHALIDAE. 10, Conocephalus dorsalis. TETTIGONIIDAE. 11, Tettigonia viridissima; 12, Pholidoptera griseoaptera; 13, Platycleis denticulata; 14, Metrioptera brachyoptera; 15, Metrioptera roeselii; 16, Decticus verrucivorus. Illustrations all of females, by S.L. Mosley from Burr (1897).
We advise against extracting comparative information from the descriptions. This is much more easily achieved using the DELTA data files or the interactive key, which allows access to the character list, illustrations, 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. See also Guidelines for using data taken from Web publications.
Cite this publication as: ‘Watson, L., and Dallwitz, M.J. 2003 onwards. Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Orthoptera. Version: 14th April 2022. delta-intkey.com’.
