Brown-spotted bite insect
| Brown-spotted bite insect | ||||||||||||
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Brown-spotted snatcher ( Platycleis tessellata ), male |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Tessellana tessellata | ||||||||||||
| ( Charpentier , 1825) |
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The brown-spotted bite insect ( Tessellana tessellata ) is a long-feeler insect from the subfamily of the Tettigoniinae within the grasshopper (Tettigonioidea).
features
The brown-spotted bite is similar to other members of the genera Platycleis , Tessellana and Montana in color and body structure. With a body length of 14 to 16 millimeters, it is the smallest bite insect found in Germany. The relatively short abdomen tapers to a point at the back, the head is large. Their antennae are about body length, the wings reach just above the end of the abdomen. The species is predominantly yellow-brown to brown in color. By the sensors on the neck plate -Oberseite a wide light band that is lined with black, especially on the head runs either side of the midline. Between these bands the horror is dark brown. The edges of the dark side lobes of the pronotum are thin yellow in color. The top of the abdomen is slightly lighter than the sides, the abdomen is grayish. A dark stripe runs across the thighs. The almost sickle-shaped wings each have a dark brown longitudinal band that is divided with thin yellow-brown lines. The brown-spotted snake has brown compound eyes with a small dark point, the pseudopupil that moves with the viewing angle . The ovipositor of the female is sickle-shaped and unusually short with a length of 5 millimeters.
Way of life and distribution
The song of the brown-spotted bite consists of short, scratchy verses lasting about 0.2 seconds. They are recited about a second apart and are described as rebb .
The species loves warmth and occurs only on dry wasteland areas with little vegetation. After it had not been found for decades, it was rediscovered in 1992 in three places in the vicinity of the Kaiserstuhl : at the Freiburg airfield , at the Müllheim training area and at the Bremgarten airfield , which has since been designated as a nature reserve. In Germany it is therefore threatened with extinction and is protected.
Confirmed occurrences can also be found in France , Palestine , Turkey , southeastern Russia , Kazakhstan , Kyrgyzstan , Mongolia and in eastern northwestern Russia.
Adults occur from July to September.
Systematics
The species was first described by Toussaint von Charpentier in 1825 as Locusta tessellata . A homonym is the Decticus tesselatus described by Fischer von Waldheim in 1846 (a synonym of Platycleis intermedia intermedia (Serville, 1838)).
The species belongs to the genus Tessellata , which comprises six species, and is their type species. For a long time this was considered a sub-genus of Platycleis , but is now considered to be independent. In older works it is therefore listed under the synonymous name Platycleis tesselata . In addition to the nominate form, a subspecies is distinguished, the Tessellana tessellata holoptera Ramme, which is widespread in Central Asia , 1951.
supporting documents
Individual evidence
- ^ Franz Schneider: Valuable meadows in the former "Bremgarten" airfield must become a nature reserve. In: Nature conservation on the southern Upper Rhine. 1/1995, ISSN 0949-5355 .
- ↑ genus Tessellana Zeuner, 1941 Orthoptera Species File (Version 5.0 / 5.0), accessed on September 3, 2018.
- ↑ Bruno Massa, Paolo Fontana: Supraspecific taxonomy of Palaearctic Platycleidini with unarmed prosternum: a morphological approach (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae). In: Zootaxa. Volume 2837, 2011, pp. 1-47.
literature
- Heiko Bellmann : The Cosmos Locust Leader. Determine the species of Central Europe with certainty. Franckh-Kosmos Verlags GmbH & Co. KG, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-440-10447-8 .
