Tetrigidae

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Насекомовед, 13.10.2005 20:56

I dare say that this is not the first topic where people show interest in tetrig-ides. Maybe the moderator can combine all this into a single topic and continue the conversation about the biology of these creatures, since they are also interesting to me (interests, I'll say right away - personal: you need live material from any southern, eastern and any Basurman territories to study vibration signals).

The following can be said about the fauna of Russia. There are 3 species in the Moscow region: T. subulata, T. tenuicornis, and T. bipunctata. To the north, to the west of the Leningrad region, T. undulata enters (it is widely distributed in the Western countries.Europe and the Baltic States). In the north and further east, T. fuliginosa begins to occur. In the southern regions (Caucasus, Ciscaucasia), Paratettix uvarovi, Tetrix bolivari, and even Depressotetrix depressus are caught (I caught the last two species only on the southern coast of the Crimea).

The same T. subulata, T. tenuicornis, and T. bipunctata move to the east of Russia; T. fuliginosa begins to descend from the north to the south. T. simulans and T. japonica are found from Siberia to the Far East. Yes, in the south of Siberia, T. tartara subacuta was found relatively recently. But the Russian fauna gives us three remarkable species: Clinotettix ussuriensis, Formosatettix robustus, Tetrix minor Ich. (= Paratettix hachijoensis Storozhenko, nec Ichikawa).

They do not eat greens - their diet consists of rotted leaves, wet rot, peat, algae, and mosses. Therefore, it is easy to keep at home in cages with a set of listed ingredients, periodically moistening the substrate. Pests in the sense in which we consider other insects are not.

Coloration is often earthy, sometimes with light bandages and dark spots - the variability is terrible. And there is great variability in the length of the pronotum process: there is both a short process and a long one, and there can also be all the transitions between these forms (a vivid example of T. subulata). And communication signals are species-specific (sometimes competition signals are close, but you can distinguish them) - watch and listen here: http://entomology.narod.ru/tetrix/ (I publish the material online only after the printed works are published; now two more works are on the way, and therefore not everything is posted on the site).

This post was edited by Insect Expert - 03/15/2010 17: 59

Comments

Likes: 1

30.01.2010 18:51, Насекомовед

By the way - and if alive, how many (dial is not a problem)? And how to keep them? I've never tried it

Example (tested on views from Russia): a small plastic pepsi bottle with many holes for ventilation is stuffed with wet rotten leaves and rotted leaves. Insects gather in it. The most important thing is to maintain a uniform and constant humidity, but not to over-wet (pour) and not over-dry. You can put it in the refrigerator for 3-4 days (+10). They can easily carry transportation by plane in their luggage. There is no limit on the number: it is not known how many males will arrive alive, and which of them will then make signals. Adult males are more tender than females, they die more often, so I also take larvae of the last instars - it is not difficult to bring them to the adult after that.

I must say right away that at the department (= at me) now this type is completely absent from the collection and any material will be interesting.

Likes: 1

31.01.2010 7:04, Насекомовед

The coloration of T. undulata and T. subulata was considered as early as 1964 by P. Weglenski (Cytological and genetic observations on Polish species of the genus Tetrix Latr. (Orthoptera, Tetrigidae) / / Ann. Zool. T. 22. № 19. P. 421-439). Then he counted a total of 14 different types of combination of color and pattern of the pronotum + hind thighs. It is not surprising that earlier all this could have been described in the rank of independent taxa. Considering macropternity-mesopternity-brachypternity, the number of variants increases many times. Among the European species discussed above, T. bipunctata is the leader in the number of synonymous names - about 60; then T. subulata-about 30; finally, T. tenuicornis and T. undulata - about 10 each.

By the way, do you have any macropterous T. undulata? Long-winged T. tenuicornis has never been seen in person, but T. bipunctata was caught on the White Sea (together with T. fuliginosa - also a funny animal, I still have a lot of questions for him).

You say your local faunalists don't know much about the continental fauna... Well, we don't know your island

well enough To fill in the gap?