Schizodactylus inexpectatus

Schizodactylus inexpectatus is a species of dune cricket (Schizodactylidae). It is endemic to sand dunes near Gülek, Turkey.^[1]

Taxonomic history

Schizodactylus inexpectatus was first described by Franz Werner in 1901 under the name Comicus inexpectatus. It was transferred to the genus Schizodactylus in 1931.^[1]

Description and life history

Adults reach 41 millimetres (1.6 in) long, and are yellow in colour, with black patches on the pronotum that resemble a butterfly. The cephalon and thorax representing more of the length than the abdomen. The antennae are 80–90 mm (3.1–3.5 in) long.^[1] The adults have short wings, approximately 10 mm (0.39 in) long, but they are incapable of flight. There are nine nymphal stages before adulthood, the first of which has a body length of 7 mm (0.28 in).^[1]

Ecology and distribution

S. inexpectatus feeds on the mole cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, the beetles Scarabaeus sacer, Pentodon bidens, Scaurus puncticollis, Zophosis dilatata and Erodius orientalis, the German cockroach Blattella germanica and the ant-lion Myrmeleon.^[1] It lives in burrows in sand dune systems in eastern Turkey, especially in the Çukurova delta; it has also been found in the ecologically similar Göksu delta.^[2]

References