Balkan mountain horror
| Balkan mountain horror | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Psorodonotus illyricus | ||||||||||||
| Ebner , 1923 |
The Balkan mountain horror ( Psorodonotus illyricus ) belongs to the family of leaf locusts within the order of long- feeler horrors .
features
The Balkan mountain horror differs from all other European whooper terrors in its body structure. The abdomen is thick at the front and tapering towards the back. The pronotum is greatly elongated at the rear edge. The head is large and the mandibles are strong. Their antennae are unusually short for a long-feeler horror, they reach - placed backwards - just to the middle of the abdomen. The Balkan mountain insect has strong legs with spikes on the lower legs. The coloration is less variable than that of the alpine horror . It ranges from olive green to gray-brown to red-brown. The head and abdomen are always somewhat paler in color than the thorax . The belly is yellowish. The coloration is the same for both sexes. The shortened wings of the male reach out about 5 millimeters below the thorax, those of the female are completely covered. The cerci of the male have an inwardly directed tooth at the base. The ovipositor of the female reaches almost body length and is slightly curved downwards. The Balkan mountain insect is 26 to 35 millimeters long.
Way of life and distribution
The Balkan mountain insect occurs in mountain meadows and scree fields at altitudes of 1500 to 2500 meters and lives exclusively on the ground. It is, what its name suggests, mainly native to the Balkans . It is also widespread in Italy and in south-eastern Europe from Istria via Serbia and Montenegro , Greece , Bulgaria and Romania to Turkey .
It emits short, shrill tones, with a short pause between them. The adults appear from July to August, females appear sporadically in September.
literature
- Heiko Bellmann: The Cosmos Locust Leader. Determine the species of Central Europe with certainty. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3440104478