Podisma pedestris
Encyclopedia
Podisma pedestris is a species of 'short-horned grasshoppers' belonging to the family Acrididae
subfamily Melanoplinae
.
This small wingless grasshopper is present in most of Europe
and in eastern Palearctic ecozone.
The adult males grow up to 17–25 mm (0.669291338582677–0.984251968503937 ) long, while the females reach 24–30 mm (0.94488188976378–1.2 ) of length. They can be encountered from mid June through October in dry meadows, in rocky slopes of mountains, alpine pastures and forest clearings. They feed on grasses and herbaceous plants. The females lay their eggs on the ground.
The basic coloration of the body varies from dark-brownish to yellowish, with black and yellow trasversal stripes on the sides of the abdomen. The males have brighter and more intense colours and more extensive black markings than the females. A dark longitudinal stripe runs from the eye to pronotum. The femora of the hind legs are reddish, while tibiae are bluish with white spines.
In both sexes the vestigial wings are oval, very short and unfit to flight (brachyptery), resembling those of a nymph. This species sometimes has well-developed wings, enabling to fly.
Acrididae
The Acrididae are the predominant family of grasshoppers, comprising some 10,000 of the 11,000 species of the entire suborder Caelifera. The Acrididae are best known because all locusts are of the Acrididae. The subfamily Oedipodinae is sometimes classified as a distinct family Oedipodidae in the...
subfamily Melanoplinae
Melanoplinae
The Melanoplinae are a subfamily of grasshoppers, from the family Acrididae.The type genus Melanoplus from the tribe Melanoplini contains many species common in North America...
.
This small wingless grasshopper is present in most of Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and in eastern Palearctic ecozone.
The adult males grow up to 17–25 mm (0.669291338582677–0.984251968503937 ) long, while the females reach 24–30 mm (0.94488188976378–1.2 ) of length. They can be encountered from mid June through October in dry meadows, in rocky slopes of mountains, alpine pastures and forest clearings. They feed on grasses and herbaceous plants. The females lay their eggs on the ground.
The basic coloration of the body varies from dark-brownish to yellowish, with black and yellow trasversal stripes on the sides of the abdomen. The males have brighter and more intense colours and more extensive black markings than the females. A dark longitudinal stripe runs from the eye to pronotum. The femora of the hind legs are reddish, while tibiae are bluish with white spines.
In both sexes the vestigial wings are oval, very short and unfit to flight (brachyptery), resembling those of a nymph. This species sometimes has well-developed wings, enabling to fly.
Subspecies
- Podisma pedestris var. caprai Salfi, 1935
- Podisma pedestris var. dechambrei Leproux, 1951
- Podisma pedestris var. melisi Baccetti, 1954
- Podisma pedestris var. nadigi Harz, 1975
- Podisma pedestris var. pedestris (Linnaeus, 1758)
- Podisma pedestris var. sviridenkoi Dovnar-Zapolskii, 1927