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.

Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea (Kirby, 1802)

Back to Britain again for a bit, and you may (or more likely, may not) remember this bee-filled post celebrating a ban on neonicotinoids, and a promise to create individual posts for each species, eventually?

Well, here's the beginning of that fulfilment.

Photographed in March, 2012, in Bosham, West Sussex, UK, using an Olympus E-420 DSLR with a 40-150mm lens and 3 KOOD magnifiers.

This rather furry little bee should be

Andrena (Melandrena) nigroaenea

(Kirby, 1802)

But it is worth noting that Andrena (and the associated cuckoo bees in Nomada) are notoriously troubling to identify.

- Andreninae 

- Andrenidae    

- Anthophila        

- Apoidea               

See also Astata tropicalis

- Aculeata                 

See also Vespula germanica and Synagris proserpina.

- Apocrita                     

- Hymenoptera                

- Hymenopterida                

- Endopterygota                    

See also Crambus pascuella, Hagenomyia tristis, Demetrias atricapillus, Anthia fornasiini, Malachius bipustulatus, Melolontha melolontha, Otiorhynchus atroapterus, Zebronia phenice, Laelia robusta, Anthocharis cardamines, Acada biseriata Panorpa germanica, Megistocera filipes, Senaspis haemorrhoa, Episyrphus balteatus, Helophilus pendulus, Diasemopsis meigenii and Dolichotachina caudata

- Eumetabola                                  

See also Pephricus, Anoplocnemis curvipes and Ranatra

- Neoptera                                          

See also  Sibylla, Stictogryllacris punctata, Lobosceliana loboscelis and Cyathosternum prehensile

- 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, Thelotornis capensis, Trachylepis varia, Lygodactylus capensis, Ardea goliath, Chalcophaps indica, Sterna hirundo, Synchiropus splendidus and Hipposideros vittatus.

- Bilateralia                                                                            

- Eumetazoa                                                                              

- Animalia                                                                                     

- Eukaryota                                                                                      

Although protected in Ireland, this largeish and early-flying bee seems to be quite common in the South of England. As with all Andrena, they are solitary bees, and - at least in the case of this emergent individual, nests are built on raised banks with some bare soil but reasonable shelter.




As a word on solitary bees, it is worth noting that they cannot rely on a sister to raise their young, and so value their own lives considerably higher than the social bees (notably Apis and Bombus), and even those relatively few species that are capable of stinging tend to be much less willing to do so.

Their role in pollination is often overlooked, as the widely introduced honeybee (Apis mellifera), with reproductive individuals represented by colonies of thousands, tends to dominate the bee fauna during summer periods, and has in many places displaced or at least damaged the populations of native bees, but many of the solitary bees that remain are relatively specialist, arriving early or late in the year, when the weather forces the (originally tropical) honeybee to stay indoors, and therefore are important pollinators to many spring and autumn flowering plants.



And that's all, folks!






For identification and distribution on UK hymenoptera in general, one fantastic resource is BWARS

Astata tropicalis, Arnold, 1924

I won't go into great lengths about the difficulties in identifying African insects that are neither Mediterranean nor South African. Instead I will open with a picture.

First off, let me say that this stout, fuzzy, big-eyed little character is a male bee-wolf. Bee wolf is always a bit of an odd name, as the insects described are neither wolves nor bees, but rather a group of 'wasps' that prey upon specific genera or species of bee.

In this particular case, which I have convinced myself is a male of Astata tropicalis, the name 'Bee-Wolf' is a bit of a misnomer, as the prey are usually spider hunting wasps (of the Pompiliidae, quite possibly the most attractive bunch of insects to leave me at a complete loss where identification is concerned). The term 'Digger wasp' or 'Sphecoid' is also employed occasionally, but I would typically use 'Digger wasp' for the Sphecidae, and 'Sphecoid' refers to a superfamily (Sphecoidea) which doesn't exist any more, as it has been merged with the bees in the Apoidea (largely because the various wasps of the Sphecoidea were in many cases more closely related to bees than to one another).

Some entomologists employ the clades 'Spheciformes' and 'Anthophila' to keep track of what in the Apoidea is and isn't a bee, but this merely repeats the problems seen in the two superfamilies - the only real distinction between the bees, in the monophyletic (=phylogenetically valid) Anthophila and the paraphyletic (=phylogenetically beyond Iffy and into the great beyond of phylogenetically useless, like the words 'Fish' and 'Invertebrate') Spheciformes is that the Anthophila are herbivorous.

To put this into context, it's like treating pandas on their own as a clade equivalent to the seals, bears, dogs, cats, raccoons and weasels, on the basis that Pandas are (mostly) herbivorous, despite them clearly being bears.

Fortunately, there is a solution: we can call it a Crabronid. Until Crabronidae becomes a superfamily, which, seeing as the Anthophila are in fact nested within it, and then we'll probably call it an Astatid (=member of the theoretically soon-to-be-defined family Astatidae)

Now that we've brought back the long lost pre-amble, let's have a gander at the phylogeny:

I've already disclosed that I believe - reasonably firmly, hence no cf, that this is

Astata tropicalis 

Arnold, 1924

which belongs to the: 

- Astatinae

- Crabronidae

(skipping over the popular but meaningless 'Spheciformes') - Apoidea           

- Aculeata             

- Apocrita                 

- Hymenoptera             

- Hymenopterida             

- Endopterygota                 

- Eumetabola                         

- Neoptera                                  

- Metapterygota                              

- Pterygota                                           

- Dicondylia                                              

- Insecta                                                        

- Hexapoda                                                        

- Arthropoda                                                         

- Ecdysozoa                                                              

- Protostomia                                                               

- Bilateralia                                                                     

- Eumetazoa                                                                       

- Animalia                                                                              

- Eukaryota                                                                                 

And, beyond heading into a rather iffy breakdown of the relationships between life and near-life, and then organic molecules, chemicals generally and eventually just plain old matter, that's all, folks.

 

Stictogryllacris cf punctata (von Wattenwyl, 1888)

Because there's going to be quite a long discussion of its ongoing identity crisis, we'll
start with the picture...

 This is a leaf rolling cricket from Chongwe, Lusaka Province, Zambia, and I think it's Stictogryllacris punctata. But I'm not certain. Here's another picture before we get started on why I only think it's Stictogryllacris punctata.

So, let's start with what is known:

Eukaryota
  Animalia
    Eumetazoa
      Bilateralia
        Nephrozoa
          Protostomia
            Ecdysozoa
              Arthropoda
                Hexapoda
                  Insecta
                    Dicondylia
                      Pterygota
                        Polyneoptera
                          Anartioptera
                            Polyorthoptera
                              Orthopterida
                                Panorthoptera
                                  Orthoptera
                                    Ensifera
                                      Stenopalmatoidea
                                        Gryllacrididae
                                          Gryllacridinae
                                  
Now here is were it gets iffy. Based on ranges identified and visual comparisons of specimens pictured on Orthoptera species file, it could potentially be either of two unpictured Niphetogryllacris - N. meruensis and N. kilimandjarica, both of which are described as fully winged... based on 'Vorderschiene' being fore tibia, N. kilimanjica is ruled out by having 5 paired spines.
N. meruensis is also ruled out by virtue of it being described as 'Kopf und Pronotum ganz ohne dunkle Zeichnungen', which I believe means that the head and pronotum lack dark markings.Which - accompanied by the distinct ranges of other Niphetogryllacris, rules out that Genus.

The other promising genus is Stictogryllacris, which has a promising range, and 9 known species. Of these:

S. fülleborni lacks markings to its head and pronotum, although it is recorded from neighbouring Tanzania - ruled out.

S. laetitia is widespread, but all subspecies, again, seem to lack any distinct markings on the head and pronotum - ruled out.
S. lyrata, though only pictured as faded specimens, seems to have the colouring of the spines in common, but lacks the ornate patterns to the frons - ruled out.
S. nana is only recorded from Natal, although unpictured and therefore troubling. Probably can be eliminated.
S. pallidus is far more northerly in its distribution - tentatively ruled out.
S. picteti, like S. nana,, is entirely unpictured, and can only be tentatively ruled out by its non-overlapping range (French Congo).
S. pygmaea is recorded only from islands in the Gulf of Guinea. Ruled out.


This leaves two species - Stictogryllacris quadripunctata and S. punctata.  The names of both are quite convincing, and both are - and were originally - described by Brunner von Wattenwyl in what seems to be Latin in the Verhandlungen der Kaiserlich-Koniglichen Zoologisch-Botanischen Gesellschaft in Wien (1888). Did I mention Latin?

I never learnt Latin, and as great as Google translate is, it seems to lack any notion of technical terms. So this translation is liable to be iffy.

Both species are long-winged, with S. punctata's wings described as 'Elytra ampla, cum alis pallida, femore postico sub duplo longiora', and S. quadripunctata as 'Elytra femore postico duplo multo longiora, acuminata', which I'm reasonably confident means that S. quadripunctata has pointed forewings more than twice the length of its rear femora, while S. punctata has long, pale forewings that are less than twice the length of the femora.Which - unless the angle of the photograph makes the femur look shorter (or I haven't correctly distinguished between the fore and hind wings...), would tentatively indicate that this was S. quadripunctata (my limited knowledge of the various grasshoppers and crickets indicates that, provided wings are present at all, wing length is an inconsistent and often climate-dependant variable).

But - and this bit I am certain of my translation of - S. quadripunctata is described as having 3 spines on the inner margin of the hind femora, and five on the outer - the photographed species has 2 and six, respectively. Annoyingly, no mention is made of the number of spines on S. punctata's legs, so as much as this seems to rule out one species, it doesn't confirm the other. Irksome.

Other points - an oblique line from side-to-side of the back of the head, and a pronotum decorated with points and lines, and the appropriate (Angola) distribution, support S. punctata, hence the title, but until I write to someone who knows better and say "Oi, is this Stictogryllacris punctata, or Stictogryllacris at all?", this remains very tentative identification...

Probably Stictogryllacris probably punctata

probably (von Wattenwyl, 1888)

Spotted Leaf-Rolling Cricket.

NB - other Afrotropical Gryllacrine genera ruled out are: Afrogryllacris (seems to be entirely west african, and rather sturdier), Afropacra (one species, with distinctive colour patterns), Afroneanias (one species, the female shown bore some resemblance, including the two-six pattern of spines on the hind femora, but was only recorded from Kenya), Ametroides (seems to be entirely wingless), Atychogryllacris (stockier, and apparently limited to north-western parts of central africa), Barombogryllacris (more northerly, structurally distinct), Diaphanogryllacris (the only African species, D. postica, is distinctively marked and, within Africa, only known from Madagascar), Echidnogryllacris (only one species, which again is Malagasy and disctinctive), Glomerinus (which, although having an appropriate range, seems to consist of chunky, pale-spined and wingless species), Gryllacris (primarily non-African, but one species occurring in Madagascar, another in Congo - species pictured show little resemblance to current), Hadrogryllacris  (with one dissimilar african species from Ghana), Pissodogryllacris (Madagascan (and Comorosan?) distribution, long-spined, dark-bodied species pictured bear little resemblance), Pseuderemus (monotypic and malagasy).

PS - I sincerely apologise for the former unnecessary apostrophe, and would like to assure any readers that I do not intentionally abuse punctuation. My mind was preoccupied, which is how I came to wrote a plural as a contraction...