Orthoptera (grasshoppers & crickets)

[francisento]

My main interest is collecting worldwide Orthoptera (I guess a rather uncommon subject on this forum) because I am fascinated about the
variety of colors, patterns, forms and mimicry occuring amongst grasshoppers but also the spikes and spines of crickets from all the continents.
If either funny looking grasshoppers with flashy colours, amazing appearences of camouflage and mimicry or incredibly fierce and weird looking
crickets armoured with spines or heavy shields - this group of insects attracts me since I was a child, catching and luring them out of their burrows. 

Several times I have been asked to show some of my Orthoptera on this forum - well here is the first one: Dicranostomus nitidus (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1895)


A remarkable peruvian katydid with huge "tusks" (like males of the dobson fly Corydalus) borne
on the anterior surfaces of the mandibles - from Peru.  

[francisento]

In the genus Dicranostomus there are only two species - nitidus and monoceros.

Especially because this tusked katydid has only been caught a few times ever, I was very lucky to have
been able to obtain the second specie  Dicranostomus monoceros (Dohrn, 1888), it differs from nitidus
by the females also having (although smaller) tusks (far right photo), where with D. nitidus only the  males
have the elongated mandibles.


(sorry for the specimens still being papered)
.

[ciervo]

Nov 4, 2016 23:31:27 GMT francisento said:

In the genus Dicranostomus there are only two species - nitidus and monoceros.

Especially because this tusked katydid has only been caught a few times ever, I was very lucky to have
been able to obtain the second specie  Dicranostomus monoceros (Dohrn, 1888), it differs from nitidus
by the females also having (although smaller) tusks (far right photo), where with D. nitidus only the  males
have the elongated mandibles.


(sorry for the specimens still being papered)
.View Attachment

Are these from Peru also?
Check out New Zealand wetas some of them have similar tusks. altho most are protected so no chance to get specimens. just to admire...

[francisento]

Hello Ciervo, you are right, I know about the Tusked Weta, especially Motuweta (Mercury Islands tusked wētā and Raukumara tusked wētā).
As they are endemic to these small islands their protection status makes them the (impossiblke) holy grail of a "cricket collector"- just to admire
as you said  

An interesting article about the Tusked Weta: gilwizen.com/six-legged-mammoths/

[nomad]

I recently saw a BBC film (New Zealand: Earth's Mythical Islands) about the Islands endangered animals that included some amazing and new behavioural footage of the Tusked Weta, I believe Motuweta riparia. Introduced rats are this rare insects main predators and this Weta, has an amazing defence strategy. When it senses a rat is near it jumps into one of the those fast flowing streams and can stay submerged for quite a period (Over 5 minutes) until the danger is over. Evolution in progress.


Image from the film by: Nick Easton/BBC

[curculio]

your peruvian katytid is superb