Saga pedo

A Large grasshopper laying eggs in the Croatian part of Istria

The Large grasshopper ( Saga pedo ) is a predatory species of long horned crickets and one of the largest, and rarest insects in Europe.

Occurrence

Mediterranean countries, southern Central Europe ( in Valais ), South Eastern Europe, Middle east to Kazakhstan.

Ecology and appearance

Until July 14, 2005, only females of the Great grasshopper were observed. The species reproduces by parthenogenesis previous findings only continued, from the unfertilized eggs hatch almost only females that are 7-9 inches long. Then there is the ovipositor, which measures after the last, the sixth instar, 30-35 millimeters. The basic color is green, often a bright band pulls the sides of the body along from the eye to the tip of the abdomen. The front and middle legs and rails are mandrel- reinforced bottom. With them the prey be taken and recorded. The females have a 30-35 mm long, laterally flattened and slightly upturned ovipositor ( ovipositor ), individually about 2 × 11 mm measured, brown eggs with which or usually stored in small groups into the earth, into the roots of grasses, be. Depending on the weather conditions, there are a total of about 50-100 eggs. After at least two winters, often even later, the larvae (nymphs ) hatch from the eggs in early May. You already resemble the adult animals, but the ovipositor is still barely visible. Head-body length and probe length may be after hatching, each about 15 mm.

The Sägeschrecken inhabit bush and grassland, usually on calcareous soils. They are predators and prey mainly other locusts and crickets, which are packed with the front and the middle pair of legs and pressed against the chest also spined. Even adult females of the praying mantis ( Mantis religiosa) are overwhelmed.

On 14 July 2005, a male was at Martigny ( CH / Wallis ) for probably the first time observed and photographed. It then disappeared untraceable in the vegetation, but was observed and photographed again on 31 July 2005. Due to the typical for the type drawing, it has been clearly determined as males of the grasshopper Saga pedo. In Switzerland, none of the other 13 Saga types occurs, which in 1967 recognized distinguishable from A. Kaltenbach clear. In the newly discovered male is apparently the first ever documented in the literature male. For all other Sägeschrecken species males are just as likely as females and there is no parthenogenesis known.