seen from Malaysia
seen from China
seen from Japan
seen from United States
seen from Türkiye
seen from United States
seen from China
seen from Canada
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Czechia
seen from Spain
seen from Malaysia
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seen from United Kingdom
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seen from United States
seen from United Kingdom
Saddle-backed Bush-cricket
Saddle-Backed Bush Cricket, probably Ephippiger ephippiger cunii, male .
I came across this magnificent insect walking along a path through some pine woodland, with an under-story of heather and gorse, in Galicia, NW Spain. It is The Saddle-backed Bush-cricket. I was very excited to see one; it is absent from Britain and I had never seen one before. The closest relative we have in England, is…
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European Saddleback Bushcricket - Ephippiger ephippiger
What you see in these photos are a male (top) and a female (bottom) of Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera - Tettigoniidae), a katydid species native to Europe and parts of Asia.
Like other bushcrickets this species is characterized by extremely long antennae, a pronotum resembling a saddle, thick abdomen and vestigial wings. Females have a highly developed ovipositor, the organ used for oviposition (as seen in the bottom picture).
In this species the mating behavior includes the so called nuptial gifts or nuptial feeding, in which males secrete from their accessory glands a gelatinous mass that does not contain sperm called a “spermatophylax”, attached to the spermatophore that contains the sperm. At the end of copulation, females consume the spermatophylax who then go on to eat the remainder of the spermatophore.
References: [1] - [2]
Photo credits: [Top: ©Michel Maylin | Locality: Pernes-les-Fontaines, Provence-Alpes.Cote d’Azur, France, 2012] - [Bottom: ©Bernard Dupont (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) | Locality: Les Rives, Hérault, France, 2004]
BUSH CRICKET Ephippiger ephippiger ©d_smets
Species of this genus are mainly present in Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, Romania, Spain and Switzerland. This photo was shot in Belgium see more photos by Dirk Smets here
In this genus grasshoppers have very small wings, the pronotum resembles a saddle (the Latin name ephippium means 'saddle of horse '). The atrophied wings of Ephippiger species are unfit to flight and only used for the emission of sounds (stridulation)
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephippiger
Other posts:
Stalk-eyed Fly - pushing eye distance from the head to new limits (also video)
Ornate Crocodile Planthopper
The long necked wonder - the Giraffe Weevil
