Dainty shrub insect
| Dainty shrub insect | ||||||||||||
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Pterolepis germanica | ||||||||||||
| ( Herrich-Schäffer , 1840) |
The petite shrub insect ( Pterolepis germanica , syn .: Rhacocleis germanica ) is a long- antenna insect from the subfamily of the Tettigoniinae within the superfamily of the deciduous locusts .
features
The petite shrub cricket is similar in body and color to the small shrub cricket , but is overall a bit more graceful and colored slightly different. Your abdomen is long and narrow, the pronotum is flattened and elongated backwards. The lower legs of all pairs of legs have short, thin spines, with those of the front pairs of legs being the longest. In the male, the tiny gray-brown wings protrude 1 to 2 millimeters below the pronotum, in the female not at all. The basic color is gray-brown. A wide, dark gray, dark brown or black band extends over the sides of the body from the antennae over the thorax to the abdomen, where it becomes more indistinct. Shortly behind the eye, it is interrupted by a light slash. The upper side of the body has a blurred, dark longitudinal line in the middle, which extends from the tip of the abdomen to the antennae, where it widens. Parallel to this, a white stripe runs between the wide dark band on the sides of the body and the lighter upper side. The pronotum lateral lobes are also white. There is a dark brown band on the thighs. The joints of the legs are also dark brown. The light brown compound eyes have a black point in the middle. The male's cerci have a long, thin inner tooth at the base. This is usually only visible when the cercus is bent outwards. The female has an almost straight ovipositor that is slightly shorter than the body.
Way of life and distribution
The petite shrub insect can be found on shrubs at the edges of forests, in bushes and other more overgrown biotopes. Its distribution area extends from southern France through Italy , Slovenia , Croatia , Bosnia and Herzegovina , Serbia and Montenegro , Albania and Macedonia to Greece , Bulgaria and Romania . Its northernmost occurrence is in Styria . Contrary to what the scientific species name suggests, it does not occur in Germany . The adults occur from July to October.
Systematics
The petite shrub insect was originally described by Herrich-Schäffer under the scientific name Decticus germanica . It was later classified in the genus Rhacocleis and is now sometimes considered a member of the genus Pterolepis . Synonyms are R. discrepans , R. modesta , R. pallidus and R. vittatus .
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