David Element's Wildlife Web Page Orthopteroids 22

David Element

Wildlife Photography

and Digital Video Images

________ Orthopteroids 22 - Sword-tail Crickets

SWORD-TAIL CRICKET Trigonidium cicindeloides (m)

This rather strange and fast moving beetle-like cricket was found in a coastal region of Tuscany (Toscana). Normally the photographer would have had a rough idea about the identity of an insect but this one defeated him completely and help was required. Dr. Paul Veenvliet, a Dutch scientist working in Slovenia was contacted and he kindly placed an image of this little cricket on a Dutch wildlife forum Waarneming.nl where it was easily identified by another Dutch scientist Roy Kleukers who had worked with orthopterans in Italy for a while. Paul and Roy kindly checked the identities of some of the other European grasshoppers and crickets on this site and because of this several corrections have now been made. Their expertise is much appreciated. Roy provided a copy of a national distribution map for Italy that demonstrated an almost exclusively coastal distribution for Trigonidium cicindeloides (and also the enthusiasm of the Italian recorders). Roy also confirmed that the beetle resemblance was inferred by the German vernacular name of Käfergrille (literally beetlecricket). Thanks to Paul and Roy for their assistance. The eponymous 'sword-tail' is absent in females.

RECOMMENDED WEBSITE:

Dr. Paul Veenvliet's Dutch and Slovenian wildlife website at: http://www.zavod-symbiosis.si/illustrations/index.htm shows illustrations of European species.