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Meta June 07.Indd THE NEWSLETTER OF THE ORTHOPTERISTSʼ SOCIETY Metaleptea VOL. 27 NO. 1 APRIL 2007 INSIDE THIS ISSUE Society News Research 10TH ORTHOPTERISTSʼ MEETING Weta Chromosomes and Evo- 2 IN ANTALYA, TURKEY IN 2009 8 lution By Battal Ciplak Mary Morgan-Richards Satellite imagery helps to monitor NOW AVAILABLE: A LEAFLET TO PRESENT TO THE ORTHOPTERISTSʼ 11 locust habitats in Central Asia 3 SOCIETY AND THE JOURNAL OF OR- Alexandre V. Latchininsky, THOPTERA RESEARCH Ramesh Sivanpillai, Hans Wilps, and Furkat A. Gapparov 4 IMAGES OF TURKEY 14 Entomology by S. K. Gan- gwere CONGRADULATIONS TO THE NEW Grasshopper Possession 5 REGIONAL REPRESENTATIVES OF By Jeffrey A. Lockwood THE ORTHOPTERIST”S SOCIETY UPDATE ON THE PHASMIDA SPE- CIES FILE Board Members Reports 15 Mouse-catching Locust – A Mys- 6 terious Creature Revealed Hojun Song Metaleptea 02 Antalya is one of the most famous town of Turkey Society News known world-wide and a considerable number of tourists from all continents visit here per year not only during the summer but also in other seasons. Re- cently, it becomes a centre for scientific organization 10TH ORTHOPTERISTSʼ MEETING IN ANTA- throughout the year too. These development provided LYA, TURKEY IN 2009 possibilities of access to Antalya from nearly every town of the world. For this reason the second largest I wish to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to international airport of Turkey is constructed in Anta- Orthopteristsʼ Society Board members for deciding the lya. Also, recent developments in tourism area made 10th International Orthopterists Meeting to be held in possible to find cheap-luxury accommodation options Antalya, Turkey in 2009. Our aims are to organize one from experienced companies. Thus, for the meeting in of the most comprehensive meetings on orthopteroid 2009, participants (and family) will be able to easily insects and to establish a platform for interaction of find flights to Antalya from all continents and cheap/ the researchers working in the area to interchange their luxury accommodation during or even after the meet- knowledge and to make some plans for collaborations ing. in the future. We will be glad to see our colleagues all over the world here in Antalya. Please save a page in There are further reasons to be in Antalya! your agenda of 2009 for 10th International Meeting Turkey (especially Anatolia) is considered to be a bio- of Orthopteritsʼ Society. The exact date of the meet- diversity hot-spot because of its species richness both ing will be decided later after receiving comments of in plants and animals. Up to present approximately all orthopterists (as much as possible) via e-mails. A 11 000 of plants (roughly 35% of them are endemic) web page for the meeting will be constructed as soon and unknown number of animal (it is suggested to as possible. All the progresses related to meeting will be around 80 000) species were recorded. In addition be announced regularly on this page. We thank you all to being biologically diverse, the peculiarity of this in advance for advices and comments on how to make biodiversity is high percentage of endemism, possi- this meeting very well organized. bly because of its extraordinarily instable geographic evolution within Tethys and being a glacial refugium Where and why is Antalya, Turkey? during Pliocene/Pleistocene in addition to its variable Antalya is an extraordinary place by its wonderful present topography and climate. Orthoptera is one of nature and rich history. The town is located just on the marker lineages used in definition of the “natural the Mediterranean coast of Anatolia on the slopes of evolutionary laboratory” characteristics of Turkey. In- the Western Taurus mountain range. It is possible to terestingly roughly 35% of the short-horned and 80% benefit from beaches 8 months per year (The 4 km of the long-horned Orthoptera species live in Turkey Konyaaltı Beach is just in the centre of the town in are endemic, and it is suggested that Anatolian topog- addition to numerous other coastal areas nearby). raphy (especially the Taurus Mountain ranges in the Though Antalya is a coastal town after a 40 km jour- Mediterranean Turkey) is the most important factor ney you can reach to the 2500 m altitudes. Besides, correlating with this diversity and endemism. Antalya 12 of the total 23 national parks of Turkey are in the province, the place of 10th International Orthopter- Mediterranean part and of these Termessos, Köprülü istsʼ Meeting, is just located besides Southern Taurus Kanyon and Olympos-Beydagları national parks are ranges on the Mediterranean cost. the widely known ones by the native people or foreign scientists. On the other hand, history is everywhere in Anatolia received a great interest from systematists Antalya and there are numerous old Greek, Byzantium during the late of 19th and early of 20th century. and Ottoman places. Some are; Patara, Perge, Termes- Although there are numerous orthopterists studied sos, Phaselis, Aspendos, Side, Myra, Antalya Castle, Orthoptera of Turkey, some of the widely known are Alanya Castle and old Antalya (also called Kaleici). Fischer de Waldheim, Brunner von Wattenwyl, Ignasio We invite world-wide orthopterists to enjoy this Bolivar, Boris P. Uvarov, Willy Ramme and Tevfik wonderful nature and history in addition to scientific Karabag. Of these Tevfik Karabag, died four years interactions with their colleagues. ago, provided a profound contribution to our knowl- Metaleptea 03 edge of Orthoptera. More importantly he is the found- er president of the Turkish Scientific and Research Appolo temple Council. Tenth International Orthopteristsʼ in Antalya, Turkey will provide the opportunity of commemorat- ing Professor Tevfik Karabag in addition to other or- thopterists provided contribution to our knowledge on orthopteroid insects and it will be a pleasant nostalgia to visit some parts of their field study area. Battal CIPLAK Department of Biology, Faculty of Art&Science, Ak- deniz University 07058 Antalya, Turkey Tel: + 90 242 3102356 Tel: + 90 242 2278911 [email protected] Aspendos threatre featured throughout the newsletter Please see page 4 for more images of Turkey. Picture notes: 1. Parapholidoptera bolkarensis 2.Aspendos temple 3. Antalyla harbor 4. Antalya harbor 5. Poecilimon sp. 6. Kas 7. Xantos 8. Unidentified Orthoperan NOW AVAILABLE: A LEAFLET TO PRESENT TO THE ORTHOPTERISTSʼ SOCIETY AND THE JOURNAL OF ORTHOPTERA RESEARCH A presentation leaflet for both the society and of JOR has been made available on the society website for the use of any Orthopteran Society member to be able to present the Society and its services in any event, conference, or meeting, It is available in PDF format and it has been revised both by the Executive and by our JOR Editor. IMAGES OF TURKEY Metaleptea 04 1 2 3 5 4 8 7 6 Metaleptea 05 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE NEW REGION- The Board decided in 2005 to widen the role of the AL REPRESENTATIVES OF THE ORTHOP- Regional Representatives. Responsibilities include: TERISTʼS SOCIETY • Reporting special problems from each region Regional representatives for the Orthopteristsʼ Society • Recruiting of new members (elected 1-1-07) • Providing articles for Metaleptea • Recruiting major papers for JOR America • Recommending sponsored membership 1. North America (USA and Dan Johnson • Advertise JOR in the libraries Canada) • Establish links and mutual co-operation agreements with local orthopterological societies 2. S and C America (includ- Alba Bentos Pereira • Consolidating the OS members in each region and ing Mexico) developing joint activities (regional bulletins, meet- Eurasia ings, projects etc.). 3. West Europe (including Karim Vahed Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Congratulations and thank you for your dedication to Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, our Society. Hungary, Romania, Turkey, Israel) 4. East Europe – North Michael Sergeev and Central Asia [the FSU (excluding Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Mongolia] 5. China, North Korea, South Zhang Long Korea 6. Japan Seiji Tanaka 7. South Asia (all countries Rohini Balakrishnan of South-West, South, South- East and East Asia, exclud- ing Turkey, Israel, China, N and S Korea, Japan) Africa 8. North, West and Central Mohamed Abdallahi Africa (including Congo, Ould Babah Zaire, Central Africa, Chad, Libya) 9. East and South Africa Michael Samways D. austalis (including Egypt, Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, Angola) UPDATE ON THE PHASMIDA SPECIES FILE Australia and Oceania The Phasmida Species File http://phasmida,orthoptera. 10. Australia, New Zealand Dave Hunter org (Author: Paul Brock, Database Developer: David and Pacific islands Eades) has been fully operational again since Novem- ber 2006. It contains full synonymic and taxonomic information, initially inputted from Daniel Otte and Paul Brockʼs 2005 book Phasmida Species File. Cata- log of stick and leaf insects of the world. Metaleptea 06 Reports donʼt eat people. They are herbivores!” although I often sinisterly wondered what would be like if locusts Mouse-catching Locust – A Mysterious could indeed eat people. Creature Revealed In early 2006, I received an interesting email from a By Hojun Song fellow named John Pelter from England who claimed to have an old book that describes a giant African locust found eating a mouse. I responded that the idea was unlikely because locusts are herbivores and the author must have been confused a large carnivorous katydid with a locust which might chew on a dead mouse on a rare occasion. John soon replied with an actual citation of the book and a low-resolution pho- tograph of a grasshopper holding a mouse. He also supplied with a caption of the photograph that read “A remarkable locust from the Congo, which was caught in the act of catching and eating a mouse, and is now with its victim preserved in the Natural History Mu- seum at South Kensington.” The mysterious locust in the photograph was in fact a grasshopper, not a katy- did, with a name Cyrtacanthacris rubella attributed to it.
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