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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Orthoptera |
Adults nocturnal (attracted to light); 13–17 mm long; pale green; pale green with only a narrow yellow or brown dorsal stripe, never totally brown.
The antennae long, with well over 30 segments. The pronotum not dorsally keeled. Forewings well developed; greatly exceeding the abdomen when folded (excluding terminal abdominal appendages) to about equalling the abdomen (neither much longer nor much shorter). Hindwings fully developed and functional for flight. 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; 8–9.5 mm long (slightly up-curved). The males stridulous. The sound production of the males method unusual, involving drumming a hindleg against the supporting surface. Auditory organs located in the fore-tibiae (sometimes partly covered by a ventral flap).
British representation. 1 species. Mecomema thalassinum (Oak Bush-cricket). Native. Northern England, English Midlands, East Anglia, Wales, southeast England, central southern England, southwest England, Isle of Wight, Ireland, and Channel Islands.
Omnivorous but principally carnivorous; found outdoors in natural habitats (mainly associated with dicot trees and shrubs, in oak woodland, hedgerows and gardens).
Classification. Suborder Ensifera; Superfamily Tettigonioidea; Meconemetidae.
Comments. The first and second tarsal segments laterally grooved; the male with distinctive, long cerci.
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’.
