Spotted club terrier
| Spotted club terrier | ||||||||||||
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Spotted cadaver ( Myrmeleotettix maculatus ), male |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Myrmeleotettix maculatus | ||||||||||||
| ( Thunberg , 1815) |
The spotted club insect ( Myrmeleotettix maculatus ) is a short-antennae insect from the family of field locusts (Acrididae).
features
The animals are 11 to 13 millimeters (males) or 12 to 17 millimeters (females) long and are among the smallest Central European field locusts. Their body is variable black-brown to yellow-brown, often also colored green or with brightly colored patterns. The abdomen end of the males is usually reddish in color. Due to their coloring, the animals are perfectly adapted to their environment and are very difficult to recognize. The front edge of the wings is not bulged and the dark spotted medial field is slightly expanded. The antennae of the males are club-shaped thickened at the ends, from which the German species name is derived. The clubs are dark colored and often curved outwards. Females have only weak legs. They are therefore easy to confuse with the similar red-bodied grasshopper ( Omocestus haemorrhoidalis ). From him the type differs among others by the neck plate length which corresponds approximately to the length of the head, but when Rotleibigen grasshopper is significantly larger than this.
Occurrence and habitat
The species occurs in North Africa, Europe and Asia east to Siberia . In the north it is spread from the British Isles through Scandinavia and Russia , north to about the Arctic Circle , in the south the occurrence extends from Morocco , over the south of Spain , Calabria and Greece to Turkey . They can be found from sea level to around 2,500 meters above sea level, for example in the French Alps and the Balkans . The spotted club insect lives in dry, poorly overgrown habitats such as heaths , sand dunes or dry grassland . However, they can also be found in covered, dry and sparsely vegetated areas of moors . It needs bare ground and avoids chalky soils.
Way of life
The spotted club insect feeds herbivore on a variety of different plant species and is not only specialized in grasses. The females lay their eggs in clutches of two to eight on the surface in the ground. Low-lime and not very moist soils are preferred. The adult animals can be seen between late May and mid-October.
Courtship and mating
The male advertises with stanzas about 10 seconds long, which consist of several 0.5 second long, whirring "rrr" sounds and are only briefly interrupted. At the end of the chant, the gaps get a little bigger. Rivals are met with a slightly modified chant. During courtship, which takes place almost exclusively in sunshine, the male walks around his partner several times.
swell
- Heiko Bellmann : The cosmos locust leader, the species of Central Europe reliably determine , Franckh-Kosmos Verlags-GmbH & Co KG, Stuttgart 2006, ISBN 3-440-10447-8 .
- Peter Detzel: The locusts of Baden-Württemberg. Verlag Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co, Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 3-8001-3507-8 .
