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Sunday, January 31, 2010

Brown Katydid or Spider Cricket?

I drafted this post as "Unknown Brown Grasshopper-like thing".
That very unscientific draft title tells it all, really.

I found this insect last week, and after a bit of a close-up look, I realised I had no idea what class/family it is from.
Extra long antennae.
Wings are held closely together, at a very high angle.
The insect flew quite readily, from a broom handle to the plant.
So, despite the odd angle, the wings were perfectly functional.

You see, any self-respecting Grasshopper, (and their cousins the Crickets) have great big mandibles for chewing stuff. Grasshoppers are primarily vegetarian, but some of our local Crickets are famously carnivorous (but that is another story). (DJW note: See my comment below) My creature has eyes on the side of its head, which is not well placed if it is a predatory insect.
Anyway, this insect has a very soft throat and gentle mandibles. Not anything like a decent Grasshopper or Cricket at all. But what is it?
Underneath view of throat and mandible.
Eye visible above.
I have searched the most obvious internet sources of information on Grasshoppers and Crickets. Few of the Grasshoppers or related Katydids have such long antennae as my specimen. I know many Crickets have long antennae, but usually large forward-facing eyes and heavy jaws.

But then there is in Western Australia a creature called a "Spider Cricket", (Oecanthus adyeri) which looks reasonably close to my creature, except for the angle at which it holds its wings.
Wings held together, centrally,
higher than the angle of the legs.
head held flat, eyes and antennae.
In this image, the head is held at a steep angle.
An over-head shot of the eyes and the base of the antennae.
This insect was perfectly comfortable walking down a stick
- which is what it is doing here.
Here is a low or side view of the insect.
Finally, here are the wings visible
and the back of the thorax and abdomen.
the legs are also clearly visible.
If anyone can help, it would be greatly appreciated.

*****
Well, if anyone in Australia could help, it would have to be Dave Rentz, our fellow Nature Blogger - of BunyipCo
Dave came through with the following information:
.
Hi Denis
"That’s easy. It a female of the pollen and nectar feeding katydid Zaprochilus australis (Brullé). A nice find. The "Balsam Beasts" of Densey Clyne fame are close relatives. There is a rare one down your way. Z. ninae is known only from Jervis Bay and South Durras."
.
Since Dave gave me the name of my insect, I did a Google Image search, and found that Dave had previously written a Blog post on the Pollen and Nectar Feeding Katydids, complete with a few illustrations, including a male of this species.

He describes the unusual angled wings: "The long-winged species have the wings held at a distinctive angle with the body. In addition, the outer wings (tegmina) seem to be rolled or cylindrical. This and the mottled greyish colour serves in twig mimicry."
.
He also has some fascinating history of this species, which I noticed had the name of a French scientist Brullé as the person who first "described" (named) the species: " Zaprochilus australis (Brullé) is one of the earliest described species of Australian Orthoptera. The first specimen was collected on an expedition authorised by Napoleon Bonaparte." Read more of this interesting history, and other fascinating details of these insects on Dave's Blog..
Dave Rentz is the principle author of "A monograph of the Tettigoniidae of Australia: The Tettigoniinae" - volume 1 and volume 2 (reviewed at this link). on Tettigoniidae. He is described by that reviewer as "The World's foremost authority on Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera)"

More information is found in my "comment" below, where I quote from Dave's email response to me.

5 comments:

Tyto Tony said...

Sorry, Denis, can't help. Must be a few good ID sources out there?

tilcheff said...

Hi Denis,

What an interesting insect! I'll keep coming back to see if anyone knows what it is.

Thanks for leaving a comment under my post about JD Salinger's death!

Best regards
Nickolay

Mark Young said...

G'day Denis,

That's a nice looking insect. It remimds me of a long-horned Grasshopper. Iirc they are the only grasshoppers with such long antennae. Hope that is helpful.

Regards,
Mark

Denis Wilson said...

Well, if anyone in Australia could help, it would have to be Dave Rentz, our fellow Nature Blogger - of BunyipCo
Dave came through with the following information:
.
Hi Denis
"That’s easy. It a female of the pollen and nectar feeding katydid Zaprochilus australis (Brullé). A nice find. The Balsam Beasts of Densey Clyne fame are close relatives. There is a rare one down your way. Z. ninae is known only from Jervis Bay and South Durras. ... I’ll send you a copy of my book “Vol. 2 Tettigoniidae of Australia” and you can see all the goodies in your area."

I just wish he hadn't said its "easy".
Easy if you have worked for years on long, thin brown insects, with long antennae - Maybe.

But once I read Dave's book, I am sure much will be revealed.

Its great to have "the man who wrote the book" to whom to refer one's question.
.
Incidentally, did you notice the words "pollen and nectar-feeding Katydid"?
I am so glad that it confirmed my observation that my creature was not designed to be a predator. It lacked the big jaws of some locals, such as the Illawarra Raspy Cricket and the King Cricket which are ferocious insects.
Our local WIRES guy tells a story that he found a Illawarra Raspy Cricket one night, and decided to feed it to one of his Funnelweb Spiders (he is doing a study of them). Anyway, in the morning he came to check out the progress and found a very happy Cricket in the cage, and the Spider was no longer present.
That's a serious Cricket.
So my Katydid was clearly not in that business, with its soft mandibles. Trouble is, I didn''t know there were such things as pollen and nectar-feeding Katydids - until today.
Many thanks, Dave.
Better than that - Fantastic!

Denis Wilson said...

Hi Tony, Nickolay and Mark.
Well guys, you can all relax, as Dave Rentz, of BunyipCo, who happens to be "The Man" on thse insects came through with lots of information and more leads to further info.
It is Zaprochilus australis which is a member of the Pollen and Nectar eating Katydids.
(I didn't even know there was such a lass of Katydids.)
I have revised the Blog to include Dave's excellent information and to provide several further links.
.
I invite you all to re-visit the original Blog again, and to follow the links back to Dave's original blog on these insects.
Cheers
Denis