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| Insects of Britain and Ireland: the genera of Orthoptera |
Acrydium aucct., nec Geoffroy; Tettix Dalman
Adults diurnal; 8–14 mm long (the females slightly the larger); exhibiting a wide range of brown and grey shades, sometimes reddish or greenish tinged, sometimes mottled and/or spotted.
The antennae relatively short, with fewer than 30 segments. The pronotum conspicuously extended backwards over the abdomen. Forewings much reduced in size (reduced to small lateral lobes); much shorter than the abdomen. Hindwings fully developed and functional for flight to reduced or vestigial. Foreleg tarsi 2 segmented; mid-leg tarsi 2 segmented; hindleg tarsi 3 segmented. The hind femora keeled. The ovipositor relatively short, and consisting of separate, prong-like valves articulated at the base. The males mute. Auditory organs absent.
British representation. 3 species. Tetrix ceperoi (Cepero’s Ground-hopper), T. subulata (Slender Ground-hopper), T. undulata (Common Ground-hopper). Native. Northern Scotland, southern Scotland, northern England, English Midlands, East Anglia, Wales, southeast England, central southern England, southwest England, Isle of Wight, Ireland, and Channel Islands (but only T. undulata occurs in the north of England and Scotland, and T. ceperoi is restricted to South Wales, extreme southern England and the Channel Islands).
Vegetarian (feeding on mosses and algae); found outdoors in natural habitats (in various, often wet situations).
Classification. Suborder Caelifera; Superfamily Tetrigoidea; Tetrigidae.
Comments. Tarsi with no pad between the claws; the frons below the median ocellus with a single, median keel which divides ventrally and with the fronto-clypeal suture forms a ‘supra-clypeal triangle’.
Illustrations. • Tetrix subulata (Tetrigidae, Acrididae. Ample-winged Grouse-locust: B. Ent. 439). • Tetrix subulata (detail: B. Ent. 439). • Tetrix subulata (dissections: B. Ent. 439). • Tetrix subulata:B. Ent. 439, legend+text. • Tetrix subulata:B. Ent. 439, text cont.. • Tetrix (Lucas). 1 and 1a, Tetrix undulata (Common Ground-hopper), dorsal and lateral views. 2, 2a, and 2b, T. subulata (Slender Ground-hopper: dorsal and lateral views, and a ruddy-tinted male). From Lucas (1920): with approximate length for 2b, and approximate 5mm scale for the rest. • 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’.
