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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Orthoptera |
Adults diurnal; 20–28 mm long; brownish grey, with the upper surfaces of the head and pronotum sometimes chestnut brown or even green; winged (with detectable fore- and/or hindwings, regardless of the capacity for flight) (always macropterous).
The antennae long, with well over 30 segments. The pronotum with a median dorsal keel. Forewings always 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 (in both sexes). 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; 8–11 mm long (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 with an inner tooth near the middle.
British representation. 1 species. Platycleis albopunctata (denticulata) (Grey Bush-cricket). Native. Wales, southeast England, central southern England, southwest England, Isle of Wight, and Channel Islands.
Omnivorous to omnivorous but principally carnivorous (sometimes feeding on grasshopper nymphs); found outdoors in natural habitats (coastal, associated with coarse vegetation on dunes, shingle beaches, and south facing cliffs).
Classification. Suborder Ensifera; Superfamily Tettigonioidea; Tettigoniidae.
Comments. The first and second tarsal segments laterally grooved. Although Britih Platycleis is readily distinguished from the usual, brachypterous forms of Metrioptera, the latter is occasionally macropterous, and would-be identifiers should check both desriptions..
Illustrations. • Metrioptera and Platycleis (Lucas). 1, Metrioptera roeselii (male); 2, Metrioptera brachyptera (male); 3, Platycleis albopunctata (male). From Lucas (1920), with 1cm scale 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’.
