Mystery Moroccan Orthopteran is Armored Ground Cricket: Eugaster guyoni

Giant beetle in Anti Atlas mountains Morocco
When looking for information about a giant beetle we saw in the Anti Atlas mountains in Morocco i came across your website. You have any information about this giant bug? Regards,
Joost de Wall

Hi Joost,
This looks to us like some type of Orthopteran, the crickets and katydids. We will see if Eric Eaton can assist us. Here is Eric’s speedy response: “The mystery Moroccan orthopteran is an Armored Ground Cricket, which is actually a flightless katydid in the subfamily Hetrodinae. Apparently they are not uncommon in desert habitats.”