Subject: Madagascar Bush Cricket
Location: Madagascar
October 27, 2013 7:21 am
Hi Daniel
Thought you might be interested in this beautiful bush cricket that I encountered recently on a night walk at Andasibe-Mantadia National Park, Madagascar.
David.
Signature: David
Hi David,
Could you please direct us to the place where you identified your Bush Crickets, because we believe these to be Katydids in the family Tettigoniidae. You also imply that there is only one individual in the photos, when in fact you have photographed a pair. The female has the long ovipositor. We will try to contact Katydid expert Piotr Naskrecki to see if he is able to provide a species name for us. We will be postdating your submission to go live in early November while we are away from the office.
Piotr Naskrecki Responds
Hi Daniel,
These are Aethiomerus, almost certainly A. adelphus (Conocephalinae: Agraeciini). Do you have the exact locality data for these photos? I would love to add them to my distribution database.
Cheers,
Piotr
Piotr Naskrecki, Ph. D.
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University
Hi Daniel
I always thought that the terms Bush Cricket and Katydid were interchangeable and Katydid was an American term and Bush cricket a more general term. Please correct me. I am probably completely wrong. 🙂
For Piotr the exact locality is Analamazoatra Reserve on the edge of Antasibe-Mantadia National forest in Madagascar. The exact Google GPS coordinates are -18.942214,48.416913. I will have more Madagascar Katydids for Piotr if he is interested.
Regards,
David.
Thanks David,
We have seen the term Bush Cricket, but it seems it is generally applied to flightless Katydids. Thanks for the additional information.
Update: October 30, 2013
This was originally planned to be a posting to go live during our absence, but since we need to link to it because of another submission, we are posting it earlier than originally planned.