Verdanus abdominalis
| Verdanus abdominalis | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Verdanus abdominalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Fabricius , 1803) |
Verdanus abdominalis or black-green grass chirp is a species of cicada from the family of dwarf cicadas (Cicadellidae).
features
The animals reach a length of about 5 millimeters. The head with the eyes is wider than the pronotum . They are colored light to yellow-green on the upper side (rarely reddish: forma rufa Sahlberg). The apical cells in the fore wing are often lined with brown on the outside, they can also be quite brownish. The frontoclypeus on the front of the head has black transverse bands, and in the male there are often black spots on the cheeks (genae). These drawing elements can flow together to form a uniform black face drawing. The females are mostly light colored on the belly side with a dark central band in the middle of the abdomen. The males here are mostly dark in color, only the segment boundaries are highlighted as light horizontal stripes. The legs can be brightly colored with black spots on the rails (tibia) or more or less extensively darkened.
Verdanus abdominalis occurs in two wing morphs . Long-winged, fully winged animals are capable of flying. There are also individuals with somewhat shortened wings (subbrachypter), with these the wings do not protrude beyond the end of the abdomen.
The species can only be clearly distinguished from related species and genera on the basis of its sexual characteristics. In the male, the aedeagus is long and thin, its end part has a widened transverse bar with four pointed processes (rami), two of which point downwards and two to the rear (in Verdanus bensoni only two long processes). The subgenital plates (which cover the mating organs in the rest position) are deeply notched on the outside in the last quarter of their lateral margin, but not toothed. The pygofer (or pygophor) sitting on the side is rounded at the end and without a tooth. In the female, the stomach plate ( sternum ) of the seventh abdominal segment is slightly pulled forward at the rear corners. In the center there is a very short, rounded double tooth in a black field.
The shape of the aedeagus is somewhat variable. In Piedmont (Italy), local populations could be distinguished that differed somewhat in shape and length; these were connected in contact zones by transitional shapes
Way of life and distribution
The species is distributed in the Palearctic region, north to north of Scandinavia. The allocation of the occurrences in the Far East is uncertain, but confirmed evidence is available at least as far as the Caucasus region and the Urals. The English and southern French animals are the subsp. juvencus (Hardy). The species is distributed throughout Germany, most frequently in the north and in submontane and montane altitudes up to 2050 m above sea level. The adults can be found from mid-May to mid-August. There is only one generation a year. The wintering takes place in the ice stage.
In the Bavarian Forest and locally in Switzerland, the species is sometimes replaced by Verdanus bensoni , the Cambrian grass chirp. However, the two species can only be distinguished from each other genitally morphologically. The species Verdanus abdominalis lives preferentially in grassland (meadows and pastures) and sucks ( oligophag ) exclusively on different grasses , especially woolly honey grass ( Holcus lanatus ). It occurs from soil-wet to dry habitats. In an investigation in the Eifel, the species preferred unfertilized poor grass to nitrogen-rich fields and hay meadows.
Verdanus abdominalis is common in Germany and not endangered. Evidence is available from all federal states except Hamburg, Bremen and Saarland.
supporting documents
literature
- F. Ossiannilsson (1983): The Auchenorrhyncha (Homoptera) on Fennoscandia and Denmark. Part 3: The family Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae, Catalog, Literature and Index. Fauna Entomologica Scandinavica Vol.7, part 3. Scandinavia Science Press Ltd, Copenhagen.
- Gernot Kunz, Herbert Nickel, Rolf Niedringhaus (2011): Photo atlas of Germany's cicadas. Scientific Academic Book Sales, Fründ.
- Robert Biedermann & Rolf Niedringhaus (2004): The cicadas of Germany. Identification boards for all species. Scientific Academic Book Sales, Fründ.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Massimo Olmi (1976): Variabilita'morfologica di un Cicadellidae then all Graminacee foraggere negli alti pascoli Piemontesi. Pubblicazioni del Centro di entomologia alpina e forestale del CNR 223: 103-112.
- ^ Hans Schiemenz, Rainer Emmrich, Werner Witsack (1996): Contributions to the insect fauna of Eastern Germany: Homoptera - Auchenorrhyncha (Cicadina) (Insecta) Part IV: Subfamily Deltocephalinae. Faunistic treatises Staatliches Museum für Tierkunde Dresden 20 (10): 153-258.
- ↑ AV Galinichev & GA Anufriev (2012): Materials on Cicadina fauna of Arkaim reserve museum of Chelyabinsk oblast. Arid Ecosystems Volume 2, Issue 2: 120-126.
- ↑ Günter Bornhold & Reinhard Remane (1993): Changes in the cicada population of a semi-arid lawn in the Eifel (Rhineland-Palatinate) along a nutrient gradient. Journal of Ecology and Conservation 2: 19-29.
- ↑ Herbert Nickel & Reinhard Remane (2002): List of species of cicadas in Germany, with information on nutrient plants, food breadth, life cycle, area and endangerment. Contributions to Cicada 5: 27-64.
- ↑ Herbert Nickel & Reinhard Remane (2003): Directory of the cicadas (Auchenorrhyncha) of the federal states of Germany. Entomofauna Germanica 6: 130-154.
Web links
- www.biolib.cz - taxonomy, photo