An Overview of Orthoptera Mass Occurrences in Croatia from 1900 to 2023.

During the last century, well-known locust species, such as Calliptamus italicus and Dociostaurus maroccanus, have produced outbreaks of varying degrees in the Balkans. The literature data on outbreaks in the region are scarce, and Croatia is not an exception. This study summarized the data on 23 Orthoptera mass occurrences in Croatia from 1900 to 2023 from 28 localities, representing 12 species. This is a low level of outbreak activity compared with other locust and pest grasshopper species in other parts of the world. The species with the most reporting is C. italicus with altogether six mass occurrences, while second is Barbitistes ocskayi and Miramella irena with three records, and in the third, place D. maroccanus and Gryllotalpa sp., each with two mass occurrences having been reported. One of the most notable swarms is that of Anacridium aegyptium which occurred around Sibenik in 1998, and this paper provides the first account of it, 25 years after it took place. The most recent outbreaks took place in 2022, and the most notable one was that of D. maroccanus swarm in Stikovo. The 2022 and 2023 reports were brief and muted, despite the affected agriculturists claiming significant damages.

A Tale's blade: Understanding evolutionary features of oviposition behavior based on Tettigoniidae (Insecta, Orthoptera, Ensifera) ovipositor morphology.

A remarkable characteristic of katydids (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae) is the elongated ovipositor, which is associated with oviposition behavior. The high degree of complexity of both sclerites and muscles arrangement of the ovipositor, is only similar to the ovipositor of Hymenoptera. Here we describe the morphology of the ovipositor within Tettigoniidae, and add descriptions of known oviposition behavior. Fifteen skeletal structures can be recognized, of these, three pairs of muscles are new while nine pairs were already described in the literature. The new muscles are ap2vf, anterior projection of second valvifer; bcov, blade complex of the ovipositor; and dbl, dorsal blade. The morphology of the ovipositor blade complex (bcov), the shape of the first valvifer (1vf), posterior intervalvular sclerite (piv), tergite IX (T9), anterior projection of the second valvifer (ap2vf), and the second valvifer (2vf), and their related muscles affect oviposition in Tettigoniidae. This contribution helps to understand katydid's oviposition behavior. Additionally, the new descriptions help in the search for new characters in Tettigoniidae.

Multimodal duetting in katydids under bat predation risk: a winning strategy for both sexes.

Duetting is a behaviour observed in some animal species, in which both males and females participate in signalling to find mates. It may have evolved as an adaptation to reduce the costs associated with mate-finding behaviours, such as predation risk. Duetting systems allow estimation of sex-specific predation risks of signalling and searching in the same species, giving insights into the selective forces acting on these behaviours. Using an acoustic-vibratory duetting katydid, Onomarchus uninotatus, and its bat predator, Megaderma spasma, we estimated the sex-specific predation costs of different mate-finding behaviours, such as walking, flying and signalling, by conducting experiments with untethered live katydids and bats. We found that acoustic-vibratory duetting benefits both the sexes as a low-risk mate-finding strategy.

Evolution of mitogenomic gene order in Orthoptera.

Mitochondrial gene order has contributed to the elucidation of evolutionary relationships in several animal groups. It generally has found its application as a phylogenetic marker for deep nodes. Yet, in Orthoptera limited research has been performed on the gene order, although the group represents one of the oldest insect orders. We performed a comprehensive study on mitochondrial genome rearrangements (MTRs) within Orthoptera in the context of mitogenomic sequence-based phylogeny. We used 280 published mitogenome sequences from 256 species, including three outgroup species, to reconstruct a molecular phylogeny. Using a heuristic approach, we assigned MTR scenarios to the edges of the phylogenetic tree and reconstructed ancestral gene orders to identify possible synapomorphies in Orthoptera. We found all types of MTRs in our dataset: inversions, transpositions, inverse transpositions, and tandem-duplication/random loss events (TDRL). Most of the suggested MTRs were in single and unrelated species. Out of five MTRs which were unique in subgroups of Orthoptera, we suggest four of them to be synapomorphies; those were in the infraorder Acrididea, in the tribe Holochlorini, in the subfamily Pseudophyllinae, and in the two families Phalangopsidae and Gryllidae or their common ancestor (leading to the relationship ((Phalangopsidae + Gryllidae) + Trigonidiidae)). However, similar MTRs have been found in distant insect lineages. Our findings suggest convergent evolution of specific mitochondrial gene orders in several species, deviant from the evolution of the mitogenome DNA sequence. As most MTRs were detected at terminal nodes, a phylogenetic inference of deeper nodes based on MTRs is not supported. Hence, the marker does not seem to aid resolving the phylogeny of Orthoptera, but adds further evidence for the complex evolution of the whole group, especially at the genetic and genomic levels. The results indicate a high demand for more research on patterns and underlying mechanisms of MTR events in Orthoptera.

Bacterial Communities in the Feces of Laboratory Reared Gampsocleis gratiosa (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) across Different Developmental Stages and Sexes.

We used Illumina sequencing of the 16S rDNA V3-V4 region to identify the bacterial community in laboratory-reared G. gratiosa feces across different developmental stages (1st-7th instar nymph day 0, and 0-, 7-, 14-, and 21-day adult) and sexes. In total, 14,480,559 high-quality reads were clustered into 2982 species-level operational taxonomic units (OTUs), with an average of 481.197 (±137.366) OTUs per sample. These OTUs were assigned into 25 phyla, 42 classes, 60 orders, 116 families, 241 genera, and some unclassified groups. Only 21 core OTUs were shared by all samples. The most representative phylum was Proteobacteria, followed by Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, and Acidobacteria. At the genus level, Kluyvera (387 OTUs), Obesumbacterium (339 OTUs), Buttiauxella (296 OTUs), Lactobacillus (286 OTUs), and Hafnia (152 OTUs) were dominant bacteria. The early-instar nymphs harbored a similar bacterial community with other developmental stages, which contain higher species diversity. Both principal coordinate analysis (PCoA) and non-metric multidimensional scaling analysis (NMDS) failed to provide a clear clustering based on the developmental stages and sexes. Overall, we assume that G. gratiosa transmits bacteria vertically by eating contaminated eggshells, and both developmental stages and sexes had no significant effect on the fecal bacterial community.

Redescription of emRaggophyllum/em Nickle, 1967 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) with description of a new species from Brazilian Amazon Rainforest and placement in Microcentrini Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878.

Raggophyllum Nickle, 1967 is a monotypic genus, including Raggophylluym spinosum, and recorded in Peru and Bolivia. In this work, Raggophyllum is redescribed and assigned to the Microcentrini, based on the type species Raggophylluym spinosum. Raggophyllum rubrofemoratum sp. nov. in described from Brazil, Acre and Amazonas, and it is the first record for the genus in Brazil. The male genitalia and the stridulatory file morphology are described for the first time. A distribution map, notes on the habitat, and commentaries on their distribution among Amazonian endemism areas are included.

Rediscovering the poorly-known Neotropical katydid Hyperomerus crassipes Redtenbacher, 1891 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae: Agraeciini): description of male reveals the synonymic status of Uchuca Giglio-Tos, 1898.

Hyperomerus Redtenbacher is a genus of Neotropical katydid with only one species, H. crassipes. For more than one hundred years, the only specimen known was the female holotype. Now, more three exemplars were found deposited in the Zoological Collection of the Universidade Federal do Amazonas in Brazil, including the unknown male, which reveals the congeneric status with Uchuca Giglio-Tos species and, consequently, this last genus is being made a junior synonym of Hyperomerus. Additionally, H. crassipes is redescribed, and the records of all species now included within the genus Hyperomerus are updated.

Cryptic new species of Nesoecia Scudder, 1893 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Pseudophyllinae) from northeastern, Mexico.

Nesoecia Scudder, 1893 is a neotropical genus of true katydids (Pseudophyllinae) comprising four species: N. brasiliensis (Bruner, 1915) from Brazil (Bahia), N. cooksonii (Butler, 1877) from Ecuador (Galápagos, Floreana Island), and two species from southern Mexico: N. insignis (Hebard, 1932) from Yucatán (Temax and Chichen-Itza), and N. nigrispina (Stål, 1873) reported also from Yucatán and the State of Tabasco (Teapa). Members of this genus are large and attractive insects, nonetheless, they have been poorly studied since they are not abundant or commonly collected. This paper describes four new species of Nesoecia from the Huasteca Region in northeastern México: N. huichihuayan n. sp., N. potoniya n. sp., N. insolita n. sp., and N. constricta n. sp. Taxa delimitation is based on morphological diagnostic characters and parameters of the acoustic signal. Information on distribution, habitat, and behavior is provided. [urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:B932F2DC-97F4-4751-A6F7-0869318364FA].

Five new genera of angle-wing katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae: Microcentrini) from the Amazon Rainforest.

Microcentrini Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 is within the subfamily Phaneropterinae and currently comprises 11 genera and 81 species with Neotropical distribution. In this paper, five new genera are described: Boroseiyla gen. nov. (type species Boroseiyla tupeba sp. nov.), Caauara gen. nov. (type species Caauara pinima sp. nov.), Capiguara gen. nov. (type species Capiguara trimaculata sp. nov.), Hyalipenna gen. nov. (type species Hyalipenna tetralineata sp. nov.) and Tuaia gen. nov. (type species Tuaia panacarica sp. nov.) covering a total of seventeen new species registered for the Amazon rainforest. Moreover, Microcentrum nigrolineatum is included in Boroseiyla gen. nov. (Boroseiyla nigrolineatus comb. nov.). Keys to the species of the described genera, maps and observations of natural history are provided.

New species and genera of Agraeciini (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Conocephalinae) from New Guinea, Solomon Islands and Sulawesi.

The formerly monotypic genera Tamolana Kuthy, 1910 and Ingrischia Naskrecki Rentz, 2010 are revised. Nanoagraecia gen. nov. is introduced as new genus, and Strictonicsara subgen. nov. as new subgenus of Pseudonicsara Karny, 1912. Five new species of Salomona Blanchard, 1853, one new species of Paramacroxiphus Willemse, 1961, and one new species of Jambiliara Ingrisch, 1998 are described. An updated key to the species of Paramacroxiphus is given. The following species are described as new: Tamolana extensa sp. nov., Tamolana arborea sp. nov., Tamolana malu sp. nov., Ingrischia acuticeps sp. nov., Ingrischia brevicona sp. nov., Ingrischia carinata sp. nov., Ingrischia signifer sp. nov., Ingrischia samberi sp. nov., Salomona brevivertex sp. nov., Salomona gumunang sp. nov., Salomona fuscifrons sp. nov., Salomona longicornis sp. nov., Salomona lanigera sp. nov., Paramacroxiphus bistylatus sp. nov., Pseudonicsara (Strictonicsara) brachyptera sp. nov., Pseudonicsara (Strictonicsara) rugosa sp. nov., Nanoagraecia gibberosa sp. nov., Jambiliara rotunda sp. nov. A subdivision of the female subgenital plate of Salomona into two sclerites plus a pair of lateral appendages is described and compared to a similar modification in the genus Ingrischia.