FIELD OBSERVATIONS of TROPIDACRIS COLLARIS (ORTHOPTERA: ROMALEIDAE) Christopher K
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
FIELD OBSERVATIONS OF TROPIDACRIS COLLARIS (ORTHOPTERA: ROMALEIDAE) Christopher K. Starr Dep't of Life Sciences, University of the West Indies,St Augustine, Trinidad & 'Ibbago cstarr{jj}centre.uwi.tt Tropidacris i s a neotropi c al genus of three known s peci es aggregation close to the ground on a small shrub c lose along that include the largest g r asshoppers in the world (Carbone ll side the gulch. I netted a sampl e of these, which disturbance 19 86). Two species, T. collaris and T. crisrata, have very caused the remai nin g individuals to scatter. Some time later broad ranges that include mos t of South America north of the I returned to that spot and found th e aggregation re-formed southern cone . The former is the species found on Margarita in a s imilar s ituation less than a meter from where I had first Is land, wh il e the range of the latter inc ludes Tri nidad and found it. Although I did not attempt to quantify ad ult densi Tobago. The two are readily distingui s hed by the fo llowing ty in any part of the gulch, they appeared to be most concen adult characters (Carbonell 1984.1986): a) a nte nnae enti rely trated within a very few meters of the aggregation of hoppers. yellow in T. collaris, basal two segments brown to black in T. I tas ted one hopper and found it to be very biller. approx cristata, b) dorsa l crest of pronotum continu ing o nto posteri imately like an adu lt mo narch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). ormas t lobe (metazona) in T . cristata but not T. collaris, c) Thi s distastefulness is consistent with the orange-and-black hindwings mainly orange to red in T. cristata, green Lo blue in body co lou rat ion . T. collaris. We will di s regard here the third, s maller s pecies, Casual observations els ewhe re around La Vecindad con T. de ca mps i, known from a si ng le locality in Colombia. firmed that th e adult grasshoppers were abundant over a Hoppers (larvae) of Tropidacris s how contrasting, evident large area. The local people with whom I spoke seemed ly warning colouration, whil e adults at res t are very well cam un surp ri sed by thi s and told me that it is a seasonal phenom ouflaged against vegetation . The forewing s bear a strong enon, although they were vague about the particular season resemblance to leaves, while the hindwings present s triking of appearance of adults or whether they are abundant every fla s h colouration. especially in T. cristata ( Rowell 1983 ; pers . year. They told me that T. collaris is locally known as lall obs.). gosta or fiangaragato. Adult Tropidacris are spectacular insects and are not rare Th e adults that I collected amounted to four fema les and throughout most of the genus's range . T. collaris is often 22 males with mean hind - femur le n g t hs of 38.8 mm ( range encountered a l ong much of the Caribbean coast and th e 36.5 - 42.0 mm) and 33.3 mm ( range 29 .0 - 37.5 mm ). respec ll anos region of Venezuela (F. Cerda, pers. co m m.). tively . Meas urement was of alcohol -preserved specimens with None thel ess, they are not often encountered in large num an ordi nary ruler to the nearest half millimeter. bers. I n Trinidad I have never seen two adult T. cristata in Di ssection of the females s howed that the two largest had one day and possibly not t wo in the same ca le ndar month. well-developed ovaries with apparently mature ova. The next Rowell 's (1983) brief account of T. cristata summarized the largest had slightl y developed ovaries. while the s mallest bi ological in for mation on record fo r the genus. ending wit h s howed n o ovarian development. t he remark that "Nothing very much is known of any of The sa mpl e of hoppers compri sed 19 fema les and 10 males . them." Carbonell ( 1986) s upplied s ome further details, not with hind-femur le ngths shown in Fig . I. Sex is readily deter ing that in both species the hoppers are g rega ri ous. genera mined by ventral examination of the abdo minal terminalia. tion s are not di screte, and all stages feed on a variety of Measurement was with an eyepiece micrometer to the nearest p l ants. He a lso noted that T. collaris s hows a very broad 0.16 mm; c ho ice of the left or righ t leg was according to con habitat range from humid forest to drier. more open forma ve nience . tions , wh il e T. c ristata is largel y abse nt from o pe n , dry for mations. It is this sparseness of biological information that justifies the present brief observations. All are fro m an area of cactus scrub outsid e the village of La Vecindad on the island of Margarita , Venez.uela, on 19 August 1997. Thi s was toward the end of a dry season th at lasts the greater part of the year I "6 on Margarita. Observation s were concentrated in a s hallow , .i \ dry gulch about 150 m long, lined with grasses, sedges, and z many herbaceou s broadleaf plant s but few trees. Hind-Femur Length (mm) M y attention was d raw n to T. collan's when I happened to see two adults in quick succession. I began a deliberate search and collected a ll adults that I could f ind . Figure 1: Frequency distribution of hind-femur length in 19 female and The on ly hoppers that I encountered were a s ing l e. dense 10 male hoppers of Tropidacris collaris from an aggregation. Tropidacris collaris 47 The size-freque ncy di stribution of hoppers indi cates that Thanks to C.S. Carbonell, F. Cerda and H.F. Rowe ll for crit these represent two ins ta rs, with males on average s li ghtl y ical comment on these observations. smaller th an same-i nstar females. Thi s conclu sion is corrob orated by consi sten t within-sex. differences in the form of the References abdominal terminalia bet ween th e two size-groups. The bas is of the strongly skewed sex-ratio in the sample of Carbone l l, C.S. 1984. Nomenclat ure and systematics of hoppers is not readily apparent. Given the sma ll data-set, I do Tropidacris a od EUlropidacris (O rthopte ra. Acridoidea. not discount the possibility that it is du e to sa mpling bias. Romaleidae). Norulae Naturae (Philadelphia) (461): I Taken by themse lves , the observations of adults are cons is ll. tent with th e hypothesis of a hi g hly seasonal life cycle, with Carbonell, C.S. 1986. Revi sion of the neotropical genus males developing s omewhat faster than females and a con Tropidacris (Orthoptera. Acridoidea. Roma leidae. centration of breeding around the start of the rainy season. Romaleinae). Proc. Acad. lIat. Sci. Philadelphia 138:366- The presence of hoppers during the same time suggests that 402. T. collQr/'s breeds at two dist inct seasons on Ma rgarita. Rowe ll , H . F . 1983. Tropidacris crisrata (saltamonte 0 cha I regret that I was unable to extend these few opportunistic pulfn gigante. giant red-winged grasshopper). In D.H. observations and hope that they may stimulate someone else Janzen (ed.), Costa Rican Natural History. Univ. Chicago to undertake a more thorough s tudy. Press. Chi cago Pp. 772-773 .