Mogoplistidae
| Mogoplistidae | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Arachnocephalus vestitus |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Mogoplistidae | ||||||||||||
| Brunner-von Wattenwyl , 1873 |
The Mogoplistidae are a family of grasshoppers with a predominantly tropical to subtropical distribution. 365 species in 30 genera are described, but the actual number of species is probably much higher.
features
The animals are between 4 and 13 millimeters long and therefore relatively small for grasshoppers. They are predominantly colored in a cryptic brownish color, but some species have striking patterns. The physique is quite uniform: They are relatively slim and somewhat flattened dorsoventrally. On the head, the rounded, widened clypeus extends to the top of the head. The pronotum is relatively elongated, almost always longer than it is wide. The females are completely wingless (apter), the males have no hind wings. The fore wings of the males are always preserved in different lengths (they serve to attract the females by means of stridulation ), they are always shorter than the abdomen; in some species they are hidden under the elongated pronotum when at rest. The rails ( tibia ) of the hind legs never have thorns, but they are toothed at the rear end. The thighs ( femora ) of the hind legs are, as with most grasshoppers, enlarged and the animals have the ability to jump. The entire body is covered with mostly very small, fragile scales; these are often colorless, but can also be colored differently and thus create a drawing pattern. In addition, longer bristle hairs are often found.
The presence of scales is characteristic of the family, in English-speaking countries they are referred to as "scaly crickets" (scaled crickets). The scales are leaf-shaped, blunt or slightly pointed at the end, with a central rib from which fine, parallel side ribs extend at an acute angle (like a foliage leaf of a flowering plant). The scales partially overlap and can cover the entire cuticle .
Way of life
Most species of the Mogoplistidae are nocturnal and live in the canopy of forests. They can be very common in tropical rainforests . In a study on Borneo, they were the second most populous group of locusts in the crowns, with the species completing their entire life cycle in the crowns (not one of the five species identified as imagines in this study was previously known). But there are also species living in the ground. The only species widespread in temperate Europe, Pseudomogoplistes vicentae is a specialist in rocky seashores, it occurs on the Atlantic coast as far as England, the Mediterranean Pseudomogoplistes squamiger has a comparable way of life. The species are considered to be omnivorous (omnivorous).
Most male Mogoplistidae produce mating songs by stridulation, as is typical for grasshopper insects. The two smaller rear wings are rubbed on top of each other, the folded edge of one wing (called a plectrum) rubbing against a toothed vein of the other wing (called a file); the sound is amplified by special wing fields. Similar to the mole crickets, the wings are not only symmetrical, but are also used with the same frequency in both positions. In the species with the wings hidden in the resting position, the front body is bent down to stridulate so that the wings are exposed. In contrast to leaf locusts, the pitch remains below the ultrasonic range even in small species, albeit often very high; in the only 5 to 7 millimeter long Cycloptiloides canariensis it reaches about 6 kilohertz . All species with the capacity for stridulation also have tympanic organs in the anterior tibia; only a crack remains from the usually paired openings in the family.
Not much is known about the life cycle and way of life of most species. The North American species of the genus Cycloptilum develop predominantly one, and a few two generations per year, adults are mainly found in late summer. Cycloptilum hesperum was observed laying eggs in wood. In this species, the female first chews a hole with her mouth, into which she inserts the long, sword-shaped ovipositor .
distribution
The family occurs almost worldwide. 8 species live in Europe, none of them in Central Europe. The bush cricket Arachnocephalus vestitus reaches the southern side of the Alps in northern Italy. The center of distribution is the tropics of the Old World. 80 species have been recorded from Australia. Despite the lack of wings, isolated oceanic islands such as Ascension and St. Helena are also settled. It is believed that they reached the islands with driftwood.
Phylogeny and Taxonomy
Traditionally, the family was regarded as the subfamily Mogoplistinae of the real crickets ( Gryllidae ), since 1987 they have been viewed predominantly as an independent family. In a molecular study based on homologous DNA sequences, the Gryllidae emerged as a sister group .
The family is divided into two recent subfamilies, which, according to a molecular study, appear likely to belong together
- Subfamily Malgasiinae with the only genus Malgasia . at least 12 species. Endemic to Madagascar, living in caves ( troglobiont ); one species was also newly described by the Seychelles in 2014 . Wingless, without tympanic organs.
- Subfamily Mogoplistinae
Individual evidence
- ^ Sigfrid Ingrisch: Order Orthoptera Oliver, 1789. In: Zhang, Z.-Q. (Ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classification and survey of taxonomic richness. Zootaxa 3148: 195-197.
- ↑ Jeng-Tze Yang & Fang-Shen Yen (2001): Morphology and Character Evaluation of Scales in Scaly Crickets (Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Mogoplistidae). Zoological Studies 40 (3): 247-253.
- ^ Andreas Floren, Klaus Riede, Sigfrid Ingrisch (2001): Diversity of Orthoptera from Bornean lowkand rain forest trees. Ecotropica 7: 33-42.
- ↑ The Scaly Cricket Pseudomogoplistes vicentae (Gorochov) in the Channel Islands
- ↑ Laurence Berville, Nicolas Bazin, Philippe Ponel, Daniel Pavon, Patrick Vidal, Jean-Patrick Durand, Timothée Cuchet, Pierre Fiquet, Mathieu Imbert (2012): Données nouvelles sur la répartition de Pseudomogoplistes squamiger (Fischer, 1853) en Provence et en Corse (Orthoptera Mogoplistidae). L'Entomologiste, tome 68, n ° 2: 69 - 72.
- ↑ Martin Dambach & Agnes Gras (1995): Bioacoustics of a miniature cricket, Cycloptiloides canariensis (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Mogoplistinae). Journal of Experimental Biology 198: 721-728. PDF
- ^ RE Love & TJ Walker (1979): Systematics and acoustic behavior of scaly cricket (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Mogoplistinae) of Eastern United States. Transactions of the American Entomological Society Vol. 105, No. 1: 1-66.
- ↑ Heller, K.-G., Korsunovskaya, 0., Ragge, DR, Vedenina, V., Willemse, F., Zhantiev, RD & Frantsevich, L. (1998): Check-List of European Orthoptera. Articulata Supplement 7: 1-61.
- ↑ Arachnocephalus vestitus at Linnea.it ( Memento of the original from January 10, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ Daniel Otte: Australian Crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae). Subfamily Mogoplistinae (p.385) Academy of Natural Sciences, 2007. ISBN 1422319288
- ^ AV Gorochov Crickets of the family Mogoplistidae (Orthoptera) from Ascension and Saint Helena Island, Atlantic Ocean. Proceedings of the Zoological Institute RAS Vol. 313, No. 1: 23-32.
- Jump up ↑ Frederic Legendre, Tony Robillard, Hojun Song, Michael F. Whiting, Laure Desutter-Grandcolas (2010): One hundred years of instability in ensiferan relationships. Systematic Entomology 35: 475-488. doi : 10.1111 / j.1365-3113.2009.00519.x
- ↑ Family Mogoplistidae, Orthoptera Species File (Version 5.0 / 5.0)
- ↑ MC Jost & KL Shaw (2006): Phylogeny of Ensifera (Hexapoda: Orthoptera) using three ribosomal loci, with implications for the evolution of acoustic communication. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 38: 510-530. doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2005.10.004
- ↑ AV Gorochov (2014): New data on the genus Malgasia (Orthoptera: Mogoplistidae) from Madagascar and Seychelles. Zoosystematica Rossica 23 (2): 210-218.
