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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Orthoptera |
Mecostethus auctt., nec Fieber
Adults diurnal; 22–29 mm long (males), or 29–36 mm long (females); usually vivid greenish-yellow or olive brown, with a greenish yellow stripe on the front margin of the forewings, with red undersides to the hind femora, and the hind tibiae banded black and yellow; but females are sometimes represented by a purple form.
The antennae relatively short, with fewer than 30 segments. Forewings well developed; about equalling the abdomen (neither much longer nor much shorter). Foreleg tarsi 3 segmented; mid-leg tarsi 3 segmented; hindleg tarsi 3 segmented. The hind femora keeled. Hind tibiae banded black and yellow. The ovipositor relatively short, and consisting of separate, prong-like valves articulated at the base. The males stridulous. The sound production of the males method unusual, involving flicking a hindleg against the wing-tips. Auditory organs located in the first abdominal segment (sometimes concealed by the folded wings or the hind-legs, and the tympanal cavity sometimes partially covered by a flap).
British representation. 1 species. Stethophyma grossum (Large Marsh Grasshopper). Native. East Anglia, central southern England, and Ireland (but in Ireland, confined to the far West).
Vegetarian (feeding mainly on gasses); found outdoors in natural habitats (confined to very marshy places).
Classification. Suborder Caelifera; Superfamily Acridoidea; Acrididae.
Comments. Foveolae of the vertex obsolete, faint or represented only as small, triangular depressions. The pronotum with additional transverse sulci anterior to the main one. Restricted to very marshy places.
Illustrations. • Stethophyma grossum (Lucas). Stethophyma grossum, female. From Lucas (1920), with approximate 2cm scale. • Acrididae and Tetrigidae: Burr. 1, Stethophyma grossum; 2a-2d, dissections of Stenobothrus lineatus; 3, Omocestus viridulus, details of elytron (3a), ovipositor (3b), and pronorum (3c); 4, Omocestus rufipes, details of elytron (4a) and pronotum (4b); 5, Chorthippus brunneus, details of female elytron (5a) and pronorum (5b); 6, Chorthippus albomarginatus, detail of pronotum; 7a and 7b, Chorthippus parallelus male and female, with detail of pronotum (7c); 8, inflated fore tibia of "Gomphocerus sibiricus" (a mainland-European montane species); 9 and 9a, female elytron and antenna of Gomphocerippus rufus; 10, elytron of Myrmeleotettix maculatus; 11, Tetrix undulata; 12, Tetrix subulata. Illustrations 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’.
