Steppe snake
| Steppe snake | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Platycleis montana | ||||||||||||
| ( Kollar , 1833) |
The steppe-bite insect ( Montana montana , formerly Platycleis montana ) is a long-feeler insect from the family of whooper insects within the superfamily of leaf locusts .
features
The steppe bite insects show similarities to the western bite insects , but at 14 to 18 millimeters it is significantly smaller than this and most other species of the genera Platycleis , Montana and Tessellata (formerly considered a single genus). There are two color morphs: predominantly gray-brown individuals and specimens with an additional green top of the head, pronotum and thighs of the last pair of legs. The abdomen is light yellow-brown and has a light-colored border extending from the whitish belly on each segment rear edge. In addition, there is a more or less blurred, dark spot per segment on each side of the body. The lower legs of the strong ankle bones are dark brown, a black, brownish-lined stripe stretches across the thigh. On the head above the brown-black compound eye there is an irregular longitudinal band. In the green morph, a gray-brown spot is formed in the middle of the pronotum lateral lobes. The rear edge of the pronotum is brightly colored in both forms. The gray-brown wings of the species are generally shorter than the ankle bones and only extend a few millimeters above the tip of the abdomen . There is a dark brown to black longitudinal band on them, divided by light beige, short slashes. The blackish antennae are about a quarter shorter than the body. The ovipositor of the female is 10 to 12 millimeters longer than that of the western bite. Males have one tooth bent back at the base of the cerci .
Way of life and distribution
The steppe snake lives in dry areas such as fallow land and steppes . In Germany there were only old finds from Brandenburg and Berlin until the species was detected again in 1994 in Schwedt in Brandenburg. In the Red List it is classified as critically endangered. Outside Germany, it occurs in Belgium , the Czech Republic , Slovakia , Switzerland , Austria , Hungary , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Serbia and Montenegro and Macedonia . A separate occurrence is found in the Baltic States in Estonia , Latvia and Lithuania .
Her singing consists of verses lasting about a second, separated from one another by equally long pauses. They sound like drrrrt . The adults occur from July to October.
Systematics
The species was first described in 1833 by Vincenz Kollar under the name Locusta montana . Today it is placed in the genus Montana , which had long been considered a sub-genus of the genus Platycleis , but is now considered to be independent. A subspecies proposed for the Balkans, Platycleis montana milae Adamovic, 1967, is no longer recognized today.
Synonyms are Decticus philippicus and Decticus dryii .
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 3-440-10447-8
Individual evidence
- ^ Orthoptera Species File synonym Platycleis (Montana) montana milae Adamovic, 1967. Orthoptera Species File (Version 5.0 / 5.0)] accessed on September 6, 2018
- ↑ S. Ivković, I. S. Iorgu, L. Horvat, D. Chobanov, O. Korsunovskaya, KG Heller (2017): New data on the bush-cricket Montana medvedevi (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), critically endangered in Europe (EU 28), and a comparison of its song with all known song patterns within the genus. Zootaxa 4263 (3): 527-542.