Long-legged sickle insect
| Long-legged sickle insect | ||||||||||||
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Long-legged sickle insect ( Acrometopa macropoda ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Acrometopa macropoda | ||||||||||||
| ( Burmeister , 1838) |
The long-legged grasshopper sickle ( Acrometopa macropoda ) belongs within the subordination of Ensifera to the subfamily of sickle terror (Phaneropterinae).
features
The males of the long-legged sickle insect are 21 to 24 millimeters long, the females 29 to 31 millimeters long. Females are a little more stocky than the males. The latter are yellow-green in color and have a red-brown spot on the base of the wing. Females are more blue-green in color and have only a small spot on the base of the wing. The hind wings of the males are longer than their forewings, the females have slightly shorter wings, but these still protrude beyond the end of the abdomen and often also the ovipositor . The ovipositor is similar to that of the species of the genus Phaneroptera , but is not only finely toothed on the edges, but also on the sides. The legs of the species are particularly long. The rails ( tibia ) of the front legs and the thighs ( femora ) of the middle legs are partly reddish-purple in color. The straw-yellow, very long antennae are slightly stiffened. Starting each of the sensor base, a thin yellow band extends over the eye along the lower edge of the throat plate -Seitenlappen and ends approximately at the half.
Occurrence
The species occurs roughly from Trieste on both sides of the Adriatic coast in Italy and as far as southern Greece and in the Dinaric Mountains . It prefers to colonize dry grassland and wasteland with loose bushes or tall plants such as thistles , where the animals stay.
Way of life
The adults occur from June to July, but females can occasionally be observed until September.
The song of the long-legged sickle insect consists of a series of short whirring sounds lasting about a second, each ending with a sharp single sound.
Systematics
The long-legged sickle insect is being replaced by very similar species of the same genus in large parts of Italy, on Corsica , Sardinia , Sicily , Crete and the eastern Balkans . Some authors therefore consider Acrometopa macropoda together with Acrometopa italica as a subspecies of Acrometopa servillea .
swell
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