Grasshopper in Sicily (1 Viewer)

[Dave Pearson]

Hi,

Can anyone ID this grasshopper (or locust) I photographed in south-east Sicily last week? It was about 4-5cm in length.

Many thanks,

Dave

 

[pdwinter]

Locusta migratoria Migratory Locust

 

[Val35]

Does Locusta cinerascens occur in Sicily ? It can be differentiated from L.migratoria only by measuring the tegmen...Habitat might also help, L.migratoria is usually found in or near coastal wetlands and dunes while L.cinerascens can be found inland and in drier habitats.

 

[Ficedula]

Does Locusta cinerascens occur in Sicily ? It can be differentiated from L.migratoria only by measuring the tegmen...Habitat might also help, L.migratoria is usually found in or near coastal wetlands and dunes while L.cinerascens can be found inland and in drier habitats.

They are subspecies Locusta mgratoria cinerascens is the taxon recorded on Sicily, measurement overlap widely, Tegmen length only appears to be useful in males.

 

[pdwinter]

I use the Grasshoppers of Europe (Home | Grasshoppers of Europe) website for my species list and I'm pretty sure they follow the Orthoptera Species File.
That gives me

I got confused by the differing information on Locusta species in the various european books I have and the websites I access and asked about it in the Iberian fb forum where Axel Hochkirch told me


Anyway, I'm sure Dave Pearson will be happy with it to species level

 

[Val35]

They are subspecies Locusta mgratoria cinerascens is the taxon recorded on Sicily, measurement overlap widely, Tegmen length only appears to be useful in males.

I use the Grasshoppers of Europe (Home | Grasshoppers of Europe) website for my species list and I'm pretty sure they follow the Orthoptera Species File.
That gives me
View attachment 1538811
I got confused by the differing information on Locusta species in the various european books I have and the websites I access and asked about it in the Iberian fb forum where Axel Hochkirch told me
View attachment 1538810

Anyway, I'm sure Dave Pearson will be happy with it to species level

Interesting, I have an article here about distinction between those two species/subspecies (sorry, it's in French...) :
https://ascete.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MOE_11_DEFAUT_Locusta_migratoria.pdf

Also in my guide (Cahier d'identification des Orthoptères de France, Belgique, Luxembourg et Suisse by Braud, Sardet and Roesti) they are treated as different species (but it is mentionned that taxonomy of this genus is still unclear).
Here in Corsica we have both "forms", they are found in different habitats as I said...maybe they are ecotypes ?

 

[pdwinter]

Interesting, I have an article here about distinction between those two species/subspecies (sorry, it's in French...) :
https://ascete.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/MOE_11_DEFAUT_Locusta_migratoria.pdf

Also in my guide (Cahier d'identification des Orthoptères de France, Belgique, Luxembourg et Suisse by Braud, Sardet and Roesti) they are treated as different species (but it is mentionned that taxonomy of this genus is still unclear).
Here in Corsica we have both "forms", they are found in different habitats as I said...maybe they are ecotypes ?

Thanks for that paper - google will translate the bits I can't!

I haven't been looking at orthoptera for very long but I have discovered that Bernard Defaut writes a lot of papers related to taxonomy some of which ends up being adopted by (whoever runs) the Orthoptera Species File (e.g. the genus Pseudochorthippus, and species such as Aiolopus piussanti and Sphingonotus lluciapomaresi) and some of it which doesn't (e.g. a large group of Chorthippus species that he thought should become Gomphocerippus species). The latter example is in https://www.researchgate.net/public..._Gomphocerinae_de_France_Orthoptera_Acrididae
I'm afraid I don't have a completely public domain link for that.

 

[Val35]

Thanks for that paper - google will translate the bits I can't!

I haven't been looking at orthoptera for very long but I have discovered that Bernard Defaut writes a lot of papers related to taxonomy some of which ends up being adopted by (whoever runs) the Orthoptera Species File (e.g. the genus Pseudochorthippus, and species such as Aiolopus piussanti and Sphingonotus lluciapomaresi) and some of it which doesn't (e.g. a large group of Chorthippus species that he thought should become Gomphocerippus species). The latter example is in https://www.researchgate.net/public..._Gomphocerinae_de_France_Orthoptera_Acrididae
I'm afraid I don't have a completely public domain link for that.

Bernard Defaut is one of the most active orthopterist in France (he even has an endemic species in Corsica named in his honor, Omocestus defauti) and he indeed publishes a lot ! I guess it's pretty normal in the field of taxonomy that there are some different opinions about which species should be in which genus...lots of discoveries to be made, exciting !

About Defaut, to anyone who read French, his book in about Caelifera "Criquets de France" in the Faune de France series is great (not so much for determination keys but for the informations on the ecology of each species). There should be another volume covering Ensifera but he's an extremely busy person so publication has been delayed 😅