Pseudothericles jallae jallae (Griffini, 1897); or the importance of angle.

After a month or so of crouching down to see yet another Aiolopus thalassinus or generically brown cricket nymphs, it becomes very easy to dismiss something small and dully coloured that hops away as you walk, even in such promising locations as game-ranches on the outskirts of Lusaka, Zambia.

Sometimes, though, that tiny thump and that brownish blur reward your attention with this:

Photographed in Lilayi district, Lusaka Province, Zambia, in December 2013, using Olympus E-420, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 2 KOOD magnifiers.

I'd like to be able to offer common names beyond the suborder-inclusive grasshopper, but none of my books are being helpful there, and I get more results on Google searching for my own name in quote-marks than I do searching for the family.

So we'll have to work at it. It is actually called:

Pseudothericles jallae jallae

(Griffini, 1897)

The basic roots there are Pseudo (or false) and Thericles, from a related genus. Breaking that down, I'd take a wild stab at it being an extension of a greek word for summer, θέρος (Theros), so we'll say that the genus Thericles are 'Summer Hoppers', and our own Pseudothericles becomes a false summer hopper. 

Then comes jallae. Now, if we play with google for a minute, jalla could be from the arabic:

  جلا

 (dj-U-ll-ah), which has a number of meanings, mostly to do with cleaning, fixing or solving, but I rather suspect that it was named for the Italian missionary Luigi Jalla, who was certainly involved with reptiles and amphibians (keeping brief my comment on how poorly those groups fare when they encounter the religious), and probably also made himself known to the entomologists working in the region. 

That would make the aforementioned Pseudothericles jallae jallae's brand new 'common' name: 

Jalla's False Summer-hopper (nominate ssp.)

 And while I'm not going to translate that all into Chewa right now, the more generic Chewa/Nyanja words for grasshopper include: Chikhwiya, with or without the Chi, Thuli and my personal favourite, Tsokonombwe. 

So another view of our little tsokonombwe:

 And with that, it belongs, phylogenetically speaking, to: 

- Pseudothericleini

- Thericleinae          

- Thericleidae           

- Eumastacoidea          

- Acridomorpha             

See also  Humbe tenuicornis, Lobosceliana loboscelis, Cyathosternum prehensile and Heteropternis thoracica.

- Acrididea                       

 - Caelifera                          

- Orthoptera                         

See also Stictogryllacris punctata, Enyaliopsis and Tettigonia viridissima.

- Panorthoptera                       

- Orthopterida                           

- Polyorthoptera                          

- Anartioptera                                

- Polyneoptera                                 

See also Sibylla. 

- Neoptera                                          

See also Dichtha inflata, Oedemera nobilis, Otiorhynchus atroapterus,Malachius bipustulatus , Phyllobius pomaceus, Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasinii, Lophyra cf. differens, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Anthophora furcata, Andrena nigroaenea, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Nemophora degeerella, Sphinx ligustri, Laelia robusta, Acada biseriata, Metisella willemi, Anthocharis cardamines, Papilio demodocus, Panorpa germanica, Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Metadon inermis, Diasemopsis meigenii, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Hagenomyia tristis, Pephricus, Grypocoris stysi, Ranatra and Anoplocnemis curvipes.

- Metapterygota                                    

See also Enallagma cyathigerum, Pseudagrion hageni, Lestinogomphus angustus and Rhyothemis semihyalina.
- Pterygota                                               
- Dicondylia                                                
- Insecta                                                        
- Hexapoda                                                     
- Arthropoda                                                     

See also Phrynarachne rugosa, Hyllus argyrotoxus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi, Pardosa amentata, Alopecosa barbipes,  Dicranopalpus ramosus and Ligia oceanica.

- Ecdysozoa                                                         

- Protostomia                                                         

See also Burtoa nilotica.

- Nephrozoa                                                              

- Bilateralia                                                                 

See also Synchiropus splendidus, Rana temporaria, Breviceps poweri, Chiromantis xerampelina, Hipposideros vittatus, Syncerus caffer, Tockus alboterminatus, Larus argentatus, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus, Troglodytes troglodytes, Megaceryle maxima, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Stigmatopelia senegalensis, Lygodactylus capensis, Thelotornis capensis, Zootoca vivipara, Trachylepis varia and Trachylepis wahlbergi.

- Eumetazoa                                                                   

- Animalia                                                                         

- Eukaryota                                                                           


And that, unless I'm very much mistaken, is all, folks!

As per usual, the place to go when trying to identify tropical Orthoptera is The Orthoptera Species File. It's not as user friendly as it might be, but it's free and has extraordinary coverage of images of type specimens, lists of relevent texts - and links to those available online - and also distribution maps and even the option to search by location. So it's basically one big win. 

Heteropternis thoracica (Walker, 1870)

For those who have seen Silence of the Lambs: if Buffalo Bill had stuffed grasshoppers down his victim's throats instead of moths, I have to suspect that it would have been these.

Male. Photographed in March 2011, in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, using Olympus E-420, Zuiko 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

That's not a judgement on today's featured creature, a perfectly harmless - and herbivorous - grasshopper, but a note on the similarity of the thoracic markings for some males of this species and the Potato Hawk-Moth (Acherontia atropos - an as yet unfeatured European species) used by the character: the symmetrical pale markings on a dark background can, with a little more imagination required for the grasshopper, look rather skull-like.

In the case of this individual, quite a lot of imagination would be required.

Same individual, different angle.

 As with most African grasshoppers that don't form biblical swarms, there's not a huge amount known about this species. Quite possibly poisonous, as it shows off a bright-red abdomen in flight, but this is purely conjecture on my part. What we do know, or at least strongly suspect, is that it is:

Heteropternis thoracica

(Walker, 1870)

Which, as you may suspect, belongs to:

- Ailopini     

- Oedipodinae

See also Humbe tenuicornis.

- Acrididae       

See also Cyathosternum prehensile.

 - Acridoidea       

See also Lobosceliana loboscelis.

- Acrididea            

- Caelifera               

- Orthoptera              

See also Stictogryllacris punctata.

 - Panorthopera            

- Orthopterida               

- Polyorthoptera             

- Anartioptera                   

- Polyneoptera                   

See also Sibylla.

- Neoptera                             

See also Chloromyia formosa, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Diasemopsis meigenii, Metadon inermis, Dolichotachina caudata, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Metisella willemi, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Crambus pascuella, Phyllobius pomaceus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Oedemera noobilis,Cheilomenes lunata, Melolontha melolontha, Neojulodis vittipennis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Andrena nigroaenea, Hagenomyia tristis, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra and Grypocoris stysi. 

- Manopterygota                        

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni, Enallagma cyathigerum and Lestinogomphus angustus.

 - Pterygota                                    

- Dicondylia                                    

- Insecta                                            

- Hexapoda                                         

- Arthropoda                                         

See also Hyllus argyrotoxus, Argiope bruennichi, Enoplognatha ovata, Alopecosa barbipes, Dicranopalpus ramosus and Ligia oceanica.

- Ecdysozoa                                             

 - Protostomia                                             

- Nephrozoa                                                 

See also Synchiropus splendidus, Rana temporaria, Chiromantis xerampelina, Hipposideros vittatus, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Zootoca vivipara, Lygodactylus capensis, Troglodytes troglodytes, Chalcophaps indica, Ardea goliath, Sterna hirundo, Burhinus vermiculatus and Tockus alboterminatus

- Bilateralia                                                      

- Eumetazoa                                                       

- Animalia                                                              

- Eukaryota                                                                 

And that, folks, is all.

For now.



The orthoptera speciesfile is, as always, the best resource around for identifying African grasshoppers, although it must be noted that its usefulness is greatly increased by a rapid connection. Trawling through species distributions and descriptions with a dial-up connection would be extremely time-consuming and probably more expensive than purchasing the original papers in which regionally-appropriate species were described.

Humbe tenuicornis (Schaum, 1853)

Caveat to the new random selection of featured creatures - if all photographs of the randomly selected subject (Morphacris fasciata) are blurry, selecting a neighbouring species is acceptable.

And so I give you:

Although I like this angle, I recognise that it's a little generic, so I'll be generous and give you another shot of this species:

Both images captured in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia in February 2013, using Olympus DSLR with 40-150mm Zuiko Lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This lovely grasshopper is:

Humbe tenuicornis

(Schaum, 1853)

Although widespread and fairly awesome, it's the only species in the genus. Which adds a level of confidence to my identification of this (African) species. 

I can't say much about it, except that it seems most common late in the rainy season and, like all known true grasshoppers, is probably primarily herbivorous. It has no common name that I'm aware of, although, as children, my sister and I referred to this (and several less abundant species) as 'dinosaur grasshoppers' because of the inflated, keeled pronotum, which was vaguely reminiscent of the hoods of Ceratopsids such as Triceratops. I did say vaguely. 

Anyway, into the taxonomy: 

- Oedipodinae
 - Acrididae       

See also Cyathosternum prehensile

- Acridoidea       

See also Lobosceliana loboscelis

- Acrididea            
 - Caelifera                
- Orthoptera                

See also Stictogryllacris punctata

- Panorthoptera              
- Orthopterida                   
- Polyorthoptera                  
 - Anartioptera                        
- Polyneoptera                          

See also Sibylla 

- Neoptera                                    

See also  Dolichotachina caudata, Diasemopsis meigenii, Helophilus pendulus, Episyrphus balteatus, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Megistocera filipes, Panorpa germanica, Acada biseriata Anthocharis cardamines, Laelia robusta, Zebronia phenice, Andrena nigroaenea, Synagris proserpina, Vespula germanica, Astata tropicalis, Hagenomyia tristis, Crambus pascuella, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Melolontha melolontha, Malachius bipustulatus, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Ranatra,  Grypocoris stysi and Cheilomenes lunata.

- Manopterygota                               

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                             

- Dicondylia                                             

- Insecta                                                      

- Hexapoda                                                     

- Arthropoda                                                       

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                              

- Protostomia                                                                 

- Nephrozoa                                                                      

See also Burhinus vermiculatus, Chiromantis xerampelina, Rana temporaria, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                       

And, beyond the obligatory footnote that grasshoppers are awesome, That's All, Folks. 



As always, the Orthoptera Species File is the place to go to identify tropical orthopterans. It's strongest in the US and Europe, for which purpose-built guides can be found, but African grasshoppers are generally well covered, as are most katydids (other family groups are not as complete for their coverage of images and ranges). 

 

Lobosceliana loboscelis (Schaum, 1853)

I have, to my unending surprise, met people who intensely dislike grasshoppers.

Female, sitting on my index finger, Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia, October 2011. Taken using an Olympus E-420, Zuiko  40-150mm lens and two (possibly three) KOOD magnifiers.

This lovely species, which, as an aside, doesn't ever form the large, mobile locust swarms that arise when grasshoppers are subjected to poor land management practices (read - people who farm with machines when unemployment is at record levels). They're primarily a species of leaf-litter, which means that they're not great at surviving in developed areas, but at the edge of the suburbs, they can just about cling on. 

- Porthetinae   

- Pamphagidae   

- Acridoidea           

See also Cyathosternum prehensile

- Acrididea                 

- Caelifera                      

- Orthoptera                        

See also Stictogryllacris punctata

- Panorthoptera                       

- Orthopterida                            

- Polyorthoptera                            

- Anartioptera                                   

- Polyneoptera                                     

See also Sibylla

- Neoptera                                              

See also: Episyrphus balteatus, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Hagenomyia tristis, Vespula germanica, Synagris proserpina, Astata tropicalis, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Malachius bipustulatus, Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes, Anthia fornasiini,

 Diasemopsis meigenii, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Helophilus pendulus, Megistocera filipes, Demetrias atricapillus, Acada biseriata, Anthocharis cardamines, Panorpa germanica, Dolichotachina caudata and Ranatra.

- Manopterygota                                         

See also Rhyothemis semihyalina, Pseudagrion hageni and Enallagma cyathigerum

- Pterygota                                                    

- Dicondylia                                                     

- Insecta                                                               

- Hexapoda                                                             

- Arthropoda                                                              

See also Ligia oceanica, Dicranopalpus ramosus, Enoplognatha ovata, Argiope bruennichi and Hyllus argyrotoxus.

- Ecdysozoa                                                                  

- Protostomia                                                                   

- Nephrozoa                                                                        

See also Chiromantis xerampelina, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                             

- Eumetazoa                                                                               

- Animalia                                                                                       

- Eukaryota                                                                                         

And to give you a short break after all that text, here's the male:

Lobosceliana loboscelis male in August 2011, in Chongwe, Lusaka, Zambia. Photograph taken using Olympus E-420 DSLR, Zuiko  40-150mm lens and 2 KOOD magnifiers.

This is one of a number of well-camouflaged grasshoppers in the family Pamphagidae, some of which are referred to as rock-grasshoppers or similar, based on their often incredible camouflage. Of the central African genera, Lobosceliana is quite distinctive, being considerably less thorny than most of its relatives. Within Lobosceliana, L. loboscelis  wingless females can be identified by, among other things, the peculiarly deep, curved keel to their hind femora.

And that's all, folks!


UPDATE: After a more recent (January 2014) encounter with a female L. loboscelis, I can now report of an interesting defensive display: at night, when resting, they puff air out of their abdomen and periodically violently kick out their legs if touched, thereby giving a fair impression of a disgruntled puff adder (an impression that is rather detracted from if a torch is close at hand). Enough to make my blood pound before I saw what it was, at any rate.