David Element's Wildlife Web Page Orthopteroids 11

David Element

Wildlife Photography

and Digital Video Images

____________________Orthopteroids 11

TROPICAL HOUSE CRICKET Gryllodes sigillatus (f)

ROESEL'S BUSH CRICKET Metrioptera roeselii (m)

A couple of oddities here! The Tropical House Cricket originated from a neighbour's herpetarium - where it had been intended to be live food for a pet chameleon. It managed to escape with several of its friends (including some House Crickets Acheta domestica - see Orthopteroids 5 for an illustration) and the colony had clearly managed to survive until late September at the time of writing - probably as a consequence of a hot and extended summer. The owner has now moved house, so there is no likelihood of any 'topping up' of the escaped population. The stridulations of these two species are entirely distinct, so they are easy to separate by sound despite being very elusive and hard to spot. They added a bizarrely European flavour to the warm summer evenings of 2003 and it will be very interesting to discover how long the colony might survive*.

The Roesel's Bush Cricket shown here has wings which appear to be intermediate in length between those of the normal form and the macropterous (long-winged) form diluta, most typically encountered during hot summers. The wings are also rather atypical in shape (there seems to be some natural variation in members of this species) and it is not known whether this is a named form of this insect or not. Perhaps someone working with this species might be able to advise the photographer further about this. Further photographs of Roesel's Bush Cricket may be found on Orthopteroids 2 and 8.

*(There was no evidence of either of these species during 2004).