Erechthis levyi

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Blue-faced katydid
Erechthis levyi male.jpg
Erechthis levyi male, dorsal aspect
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Orthoptera
Suborder: Ensifera
Family: Tettigoniidae
Genus: Erechthis
Species:
E. levyi
Binomial name
Erechthis levyi
De Luca and Morris, 2016
Erechthis levyi male, lateral aspect Erechthis levyi male, lateral aspect.jpg
Erechthis levyi male, lateral aspect
Acoustic mate attraction call of male Erechthis levyi katydid

Erechthis levyi, the blue-faced katydid or Eleuthera rhino katydid, is a katydid found in The Bahamas. Currently, it is described from specimens collected only on the island of Eleuthera. They are light brown in color throughout the body, but exhibit a bright turquoise-blue face and bear a prominent spine on the vertex of the head between the eyes, hence the common names. It is tentatively considered an endemic species to The Bahamas, as no specimens are recorded from Cuba or Hispaniola, where other Erechthis species occur. The species was named in honor of Leon Levy, a prominent Wall Street financier and philanthropist who spent much time on Eleuthera and was an avid admirer of the island's flora and natural beauty.

Contents

Description

Erechthis levyi is light-brown in color with a prominent dark brown stripe running dorsally along the midline from the thorax to the tips of the wings. The face is turquoise-blue in color as are the distal tips of the legs. The blue coloration disappears in preserved specimens. Adults measure between 46–51 mm (1.8–2.0 in) in body length, with females about 5 mm (0.20 in) longer than males. Compared to the other two species in the genus (E. gundlachi and E. ayiti), E. levyi is more robust in overall body shape, and females bear a much longer ovipositor, about 22 mm (0.87 in), compared to those of either of the female congeners, 14–17 mm (0.55–0.67 in). [1]

Distribution and habitat

Erechthis levyi is presently described from specimens collected on Eleuthera in The Bahamas. Individuals were first observed in 2013 at the Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve, a national park managed by the Bahamas National Trust. [1] Additional sampling in the future will enable a more thorough determination of its complete range throughout the Bahamian archipelago. The other two species in this genus are described from specimens found only on Cuba and Hispaniola. [1] [2] No specimens of E. levyi are recorded from Cuba or Hispaniola, nor have its congeners been found in The Bahamas. At present time then, E. levyi is tentatively considered an endemic species to The Bahamas.

The habitat of E. levyi is forest coppice, with the most common plants being poisonwood ( Metopium toxiferum ), pigeon plum ( Coccoloba diversifolia ) and gum elemi ( Bursera simaruba ). There are also several species of palm, such as buccaneer ( Pseudophoenix sargentii ), coconut ( Cocos nucifera ), sabal ( Sabal palmetto ), silver top ( Coccothrinax argentata ) and thatch ( Thrinax morrisii ). Interestingly, specimens of E. levyi have only been observed occurring on palm trees. Whether this represents a preferred plant host requires further determination. [1]

Taxonomy

The genus Erechthis is originally described from specimens collected on Cuba. [3] The only species in the genus until 2016 was E. gundlachi which has since been found occurring in the Dominican Republic on the island of Hispaniola. [2] [4] When examining museum specimens of E. gundlachi to describe E. levyi, it was determined that several specimens were in fact morphologically distinct from the E. gundlachi holotype. Accordingly, these were subsequently identified as a new species – E. ayiti. All specimens described as E. ayiti were collected from Haiti. [1]

Behaviour

Little is known about the natural history and behaviour of E. levyi. Few observations have been made of individuals in their natural habitat thus far. Like most nocturnal katydids, blue-faced katydids hide themselves well in the vegetation, but they also tend to be situated high up, >2 m (6 ft 7 in), on palm trees out of easy reach. Most specimens collected at the Levy Preserve have been males, and were only found by ear from tracking the acoustic mate attraction call of a singing male to its source. [1] Individuals remain well-hidden during the day so where they occur is unknown. One hypothesis is that they use bromeliad plants as daytime refugia, which are extremely abundant throughout the coppice forests. [1] The blue-green coloration of bromeliad leaves is similar to their turquoise-blue face, and therefore one possibility is that individuals hide "face up" while concealing their body at the base of the leaves, exposing the head to blend in with the surrounding vegetation. [5]

As with many species of katydids, male E. levyi stridulate to produce an acoustic mating song to attract females. [6] In the time domain, the song appears as a steadily repeated sequence of short chirps, each composed of a series of 3 – 5 pulse trains. In the frequency domain, the spectrum combines an isolated lower audio peak around 7 kHz (range: 6.5 – 8.5 kHz) with a more extensive band from 11 – 24 kHz. [1]

Related Research Articles

The Lucayanpeople were the original residents of the Bahamas before the European conquest of the Americas. They were a branch of the Tainos who inhabited most of the Caribbean islands at the time. The Lucayans were the first indigenous Americans encountered by Christopher Columbus. Shortly after contact, the Spanish kidnapped and enslaved Lucayans, with the genocide culminating in complete eradication of Lucayan people from the Bahamas by 1520.

Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas

Eleuthera refers both to a single island in the archipelagic state of The Commonwealth of the Bahamas and to its associated group of smaller islands. Eleuthera forms a part of the Great Bahama Bank. The island of Eleuthera incorporates the smaller Harbour Island. "Eleuthera" derives from the feminine form of the Greek adjective ἐλεύθερος (eleútheros), meaning "free". Known in the 17th century as Cigateo, it lies 80 km east of Nassau. It is long and thin—180 km long and in places little more than 1.6 km wide. Its eastern side faces the Atlantic Ocean, and its western side faces the Great Bahama Bank. The topography of the island varies from wide rolling pink sand beaches to large outcrops of ancient coral reefs, and its population is approximately 11,000. The principal economy of the island is tourism.

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Koanophyllon is a genus of plants in the sunflower family. They are perennials and shrubs and are native to South America, Central America, the West Indies, Mexico, with a few species range extending into the United States. The flowers are white to pinkish.

Neduba extincta, the Antioch Dunes shieldback katydid, is an extinct species of katydid that was endemic to California, United States. It was not discovered until after its extinction.

<i>Sabal causiarum</i> Species of plant

Sabal causiarum, commonly known as the Puerto Rico palmetto or Puerto Rican hat palm, is a species of palm which is native to Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, and the British Virgin Islands. As its common and scientific names suggest, its leaves are used in the manufacture of "straw" hats.

<i>Flaveria trinervia</i> Species of flowering plant

Flaveria trinervia is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names clustered yellowtops, speedyweed, and yellow twinstem. It is native to parts of the Americas, including the southeastern and southwestern United States, most of the Bahamas, Mexico, Belize, and parts of the Caribbean, especially Cuba, Cayman Islands, Jamaica, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and Barbados. It is also known in many other places as an introduced species and often a noxious weed, such as in Hawaii.

<i>Eugaster spinulosa</i> Species of cricket-like animal

Eugaster spinulosa is a species of bush-cricket from Morocco.

Panoploscelis is a genus of very large insects belonging to the true katydid tribe Eucocconotini, which is a subfamily of the katydids. Like the other members of the suborder Ensifera, Panoploscelis are part of the insect order Orthoptera, which also contains crickets, grasshoppers and locusts. Members of this genus are among the largest katydids of the Neotropics.

<i>Barbitistes obtusus</i> Species of cricket-like animal

Barbitistes obtusus, common name Southern Saw-tailed Bush-cricket or Alpine Saw Bush-cricket, is a species of katydids crickets in family Phaneropteridae subfamily Phaneropterinae.

Eumastacidae Family of grasshoppers

Eumastacidae are a family of grasshoppers sometimes known as monkey- or matchstick grasshoppers. They usually have thin legs that are held folded at right angles to the body, sometimes close to the horizontal plane. Many species are wingless and the head is at an angle with the top of the head often jutting above the line of the thorax and abdomen. They have three segmented tarsi and have a short antenna with a knobby organ at the tip. They do not have a prosternal spine or tympanum. Most species are tropical and the diversity is greater in the Old World. They are considered primitive within the Orthoptera and feed on algae, ferns and gymnosperms, the more ancient plant groups.

Mecopodinae Subfamily of cricket-like animals

Mecopodinae, the long-legged katydids, are a subfamily of bush crickets found in western South America, sub-Saharan Africa, and Asia. In Asia, the distribution includes India, Indochina, Japan, the Philippines, and Malesia to Papua New Guinea and Australasia, including many Pacific islands.

Smilax havanensis is a plant species native to Cuba, the Cayman Islands, Bahamas, Turks & Caicos, and southern Florida.

Koanophyllon villosum, the Florida Keys thoroughwort, or abre camino, is a species of flowering plant in the sunflower family. It grows in southern Florida, Cuba, the Bahamas, Hispaniola, Jamaica, and the Islas de la Bahía.

Agraeciini Tribe of cricket-like animals

Agraeciini is a large tribe of bush crickets or katydids in the conehead subfamily, Conocephalinae.

<i>Capnobotes fuliginosus</i> Species of cricket-like animal

Capnobotes fuliginosus is a species of katydid known as the sooty longwing. It is found in the western United States and Mexico. It is omnivorous and it is the prey of the wasp Palmodes praestans.

Coccothrinax spirituana is a fan palm which is palm endemic to central Cuba. Populations have been found in Sancti Spíritus and Ciego de Ávila provinces. Its leaves are ash-grey in colour on their upper and lower surfaces, a characteristic which is not found in other members of the genus. The species was described in 2017. Specimens of the palm were collected in Sancti Spíritus Province in 1975 and 1995.

<i>Erechthis</i> Genus of insects

Erechthis is a genus of Caribbean katydids in the tribe Agraeciini. They are distributed across a few islands in the Greater Antilles region.

<i>Supersonus</i> Genus of katydids

Supersonus is a genus of katydids in the order Orthoptera first described in 2014. The genus contains three species which are endemic to the rainforests of South America. Its name is an allusion to the fact that the males, in order to attract the females, produce a very high frequency noise which can reach 150 kHz. This has been considered the highest frequency ultrasonic noise of the animal kingdom. The noise is imperceptible to human hearing, which is only capable of detecting up to 20 kHz.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 De Luca, Paul A.; Morris, Glenn K. (2016). "Erechthis katydids (Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae) in the Caribbean: new species from The Bahamas and Hispaniola". Journal of Orthoptera Research. 25 (2): 49–59. doi: 10.1665/034.025.0203 . ISSN   1082-6467. JSTOR   24892495. S2CID   89326905.
  2. 1 2 Perez-Gelabert, Daniel E. (2014). "Two new records of Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae) from the Dominican Republic, Hispaniola". Novitates Caribaea (7): 37–43. doi: 10.33800/nc.v0i7.63 . ISSN   2079-0139.
  3. ↑ Bolívar, Ignazio (1888). "Ėnumération des Orthoptères de l'ile de Cuba". Mémoires de la Société zoologique de France. 1: 116–244.
  4. ↑ Yong, Sheyla (2017). "The predator becomes the prey: the katydid Erechthis gundlachi Bolívar, 1888 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) feeding upon the Cuban lizard Anolis homolechis (Cope, 1864) (Squamata: Dactyloidae), with some notes on Hispaniolan Erechthis Bolívar, 1888". Ecologica Montenegrina. 11: 80–83. doi: 10.37828/em.2017.11.13 .
  5. ↑ Nickle, David A.; Castner, James L. (1995). "Strategies Utilized by Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) against Diurnal Predators in Rainforests of Northeastern Peru". Journal of Orthoptera Research (4): 75–88. doi:10.2307/3503461. ISSN   1082-6467. JSTOR   3503461.
  6. ↑ Ewing, Arthur (1990). Arthropod bioacoustics: neurobiology and behaviour. Cornell University Press.
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