Raspy Cricket from the Philippines

bugman

February 14th, 2010 at 10:59 am

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Cricket
February 14, 2010
My cousin found an unsual cricket at the backyard. It has wings and the head is black colored. It a little aggressive when I tried to touch it.

Raspy Cricket

After I took the pictures, it hopped liked a grasshopper with its wings still spread and headed towards the plants. I wasn’t able to take the picture with its wings retracted.
Neil Clark
Baguio, Philippines

Raspy Cricket

Hi Neil,
That is one crazy looking insect. It is a Longhorned Orthopteran in the suborder Ensifera, and we believe it is a Katydid in the family Tettigoniidae, most likely a predatory species. We will check with Piotr Naskrecki, an expert in the family, to see if he recognizes this spectacular creature with its aggressive threat posture.

Raspy Cricket

Piotr Naskrecki Responds
Hi Daniel,
This is not a katydid, but a member of Gryllacrididae, a distantly related
family. Most of them, if not all, are voracious predators that actively hunt
prey by constantly running along branches in search of insects. I cannot say
what genus it is, possibly Gryllacris or Caustogryllacris; very little work
has been done on this group since the 1920s.
Piotr

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Comments 2

neilclark wrote:
Was the work on that group stopped for some reason? Thanks for Identifying sir.
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 6:05 pm ¶
bugman wrote:
Hi Neil,
Like music and fashion, trends come and go, and certain groups of insects are not popular at certain times, so no research is done. Additionally, taxonomic research is often conducted by individuals with an interest in a specific group. In no entomologist does research that is published, there is no additional information available on a group.
Posted 14 Feb 2010 at 6:51 pm ¶