Blue-winged sand bug
| Blue-winged sand bug | ||||||||||||
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Female of the blue-winged sand insect ( Sphingonotus caerulans ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Sphingonotus caerulans | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1767) |
The blue-winged grasshopper sand ( Sphingonotus caerulans ) is a grasshopper from the family of grasshoppers (Acrididae). It belongs to the subfamily of the wasteland terrors (Oedipodinae), which mainly includes species of warm, dry habitats with often brightly colored hind wings. The genus Sphingonotus is one of the most species-rich and widespread genera of locusts. There are numerous species in arid regions of the world. A particularly large number of species live in the Mediterranean / North Africa, Central Asia and East Asia.
features
The species is usually gray or brownish in color with differently pronounced black spots. This means that it is excellently camouflaged in its habitats, which are usually poor in vegetation. The tibiae (splints) of the legs are colored light blue. The hind wings are colored light blue. In contrast to the similar blue-winged wasteland insect ( Oedipoda caerulescens ), with which it occurs regularly in Central Europe, the hind wings of the blue-winged sand insect usually have no dark band. However, there may be a smoke-gray transverse band in the hind wing (especially in Northeastern Europe). Animals drawn in this way have been described as subspecies cyanopterus (Charpentier), although the status of the subspecies is controversial. The species is also slimmer than Oedipoda . The best feature to distinguish the two genera is the shape of the pronotum, which in Sphingonotus is saddle-shaped at the front and has no raised central keel, while in Oedipoda it is clearly raised roof-shaped. In addition, the hind legs of Sphingonotus are continuously narrowed backwards, while in Oedipoda they suddenly become narrower halfway up.
Occurrence
The species lives exclusively in heat-favored habitats with only sparse vegetation cover. Areas with vegetation exceeding 20% are avoided. There are no requirements for the grain size or a special bond with sand, as the name would suggest. Rather, the species is more likely to be found in rocky or gravel-rich habitats. Similar to other wasteland horrors, it is very common in rocky heaths in the Mediterranean area and can reach very high densities here. However, there are other very similar species of the genus in these habitats. The northern limit of distribution is in northern France, eastern Sweden (Öland) and southern Finland. In Central and Northern Europe, the species is restricted to special habitats with little vegetation, in which the soil remains free of vegetation through constant relocation (pioneer species of open habitats). In the natural landscape, these were above all the extensive gravel areas of the wild rivers. In the cultural landscape, the species has moved to secondary habitats kept free of vegetation by humans. B. sand and gravel pits, but also freight yards. It is particularly common on military training areas with long lanes. Since its primary habitats in Central Europe have been almost completely destroyed, it is now dependent on these secondary habitats with us.
Since the early 1980s, the species has shown a noticeable change in habitat. It is now increasingly on railway systems, v. a. Shunting yards and freight yards and in industrial areas of heavy industry. This transition was initially registered in Switzerland, but has now also been registered in the Rhine-Main area and the Ruhr area. Here the species is registered in landscapes in which it has been extinct for decades or was previously not detected. Presumably it is a real (secondary) area expansion from the southwest. The species benefits from its excellent flight ability. However, it may also be spread passively through rail transport.
Danger
The population of the blue-winged sand insect has been declining in Central Europe for decades, which is why the species is listed in category 2 (endangered) in Germany on the red list. In this classification, however, the recent increase in populations on railway areas and industrial facilities has not yet been taken into account.
swell
literature
- Heiko Bellmann: The new cosmos insect guide. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 2000, ISBN 978-3-440-11924-2 .
- Peter Detzel: The locusts of Baden-Württemberg. Ulmer, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8001-3507-8 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=77854
- ↑ R. Höhnen, R. Klatt: Provisional distribution atlas of the grasshoppers of Brandenburg. In: Märkische Entomologische Nachrichten. 1 (2000), ISSN 1438-9665 , pp. 1-72.
- ^ Christian Monnerat, Philippe Thorens, Thomas Walter, Yves Gonseth (2007): Rote Liste Heuschrecken. Red list of endangered species in Switzerland. Published by the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN and the Swiss Center for the Cartography of Fauna SZKF / CSCF, Bern. Environment enforcement 0719: 62 p.
- ↑ Claudia Heidi Heß (2001): Habitat selection and species composition of arthropod populations in urban areas using the example of the Rhine-Main agglomeration with special consideration of the Saltatoria. Diss., Univ. Mainz.
- ^ Michael Hamann & Annette Schulte (2002): Locust habitats in the industrial landscape of the Ruhr area. Communications from the State Institute for Ecology, Land Management and Forests (LÖBF-Mitteilungen) 1/02: 31-35.
- ↑ Stephan Maas, Peter Detzel, Aloysius Staudt (2002): Risk analysis of grasshoppers in Germany. Published by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation. ISBN 3-7843-3828-3
