BIOL 286

Lecture 18
ORDER ORTHOPTERA
 FEATURES
• Large insects
• Body is elongate
• Cerci well developed
• Antennae long

• Chewing mouthparts

• Simple metamorphosis
 Features (cont’d)

 May be winged or wingless

 If winged ---> 2 pairs:

• First pair is leathery and thick =
tegmina (for protection)
• Second is membranous (used in
flight).
 TAXONOMY
• The order Orthoptera includes a variety of insects, many
of which are common and well known.
• In recent taxonomy, this order has been divided into
several orders:
I- Orthoptera: Caelifera and Ensifera
II- Phasmatodea: walking sticks
III- Blattodea: cockroaches
IV- Mantidea: mantids

• We will follow the old taxonomy: one order and several

suborders.
 A. Suborder Caelifera:
Short-horned grasshoppers and locusts

 Almost entirely phytophagous;

feed mainly on grasses; serious pests
of grains and vegetables.
 Adapted for jumping:
hind femur enlarged.
 Females lays eggs in batches or pods
surrounded by foamy material (stick
eggs to vegetation or in soil).
 Escape mechanisms:

a. Jumping
b. Camouflage
c. Kicking with hind legs (spines on
tibia)
d. Shed a leg if grabbed by predator
e. Some suddenly open wings
displaying flashy coloration on hind
wing/startle predators
f. Flying then suddenly shutting wings
and dropping to ground.
 Sound production in the Caelifera
• Done mainly by males (calling songs) to attract
females during courtship.
• Songs achieved by stridulation = rubbing one body
organ against another.
• Rubbing a file on hind femur against a scraper on
front wing.

File
• Songs are species specific.
• They are distinguished by their pulse (1 stroke of
scraper over file) and rhythm = temporal pattern
of pulses.
• Ex:

• Males and females have oval auditory organs =

tympana, on sides of first abdominal segment.
 MIGRATORY LOCUSTS
Many grasshoppers have two phases
SOLITARY GREGARIOUS
• Light-colored, • Darker
• Larger hind legs • Shorter hind legs
• Shorter wings. • Longer wings
• Solitary habit • Restless
• Tend to aggregate in
masses.
 Formation of locust swarms
Environmental conditions control into which phase the
grasshoppers develop:
a. Uncrowded conditions and plenty of food (grasses)
promote solitary phase characters.
b. Crowded conditions promote gregarious phase characters.

It takes 2-3 generations of crowding before adults develop

complete gregarious phase characters.
• In Africa, after a rainy season, the
solitary grasshoppers reproduce
and rapidly increase in density.

• Then, if drought occurs for few

years, crowding and lack of food
stimulate the development of
small aggregates of the
gregarious phase (locusts).
• Gregarious phase is
characterized by being restless
and having a strong affinity to
stay with other members.
• Small aggregates tend to contact
and fuse into larger aggregates.
• Eventually, often due to drought
and food exhaustion, gregarious
phase migrates often in
dramatically large swarms
(50,000 individuals/swarm).
• Flight starts into the wind.
• The locusts can maintain a speed of 16 km/h for 20 hours;
however, as they gain altitude, the swarm is directed by
the wind.
• Winds tend to blow seasonally into zones of convergence,
characterized by rising air, low barometric pressure and
frequent precipitation (rain).
• This is adaptive as moisture is necessary to complete the
life cycle.
• Ecologically, solitary phase exploits readily available food;
gregarious phase disperses.
 B. Suborder Ensifera
Crickets, katydids, long-horned grasshoppers

• Similar to Caelifera
• Chewing mouthparts
• Phytophagous
• Legs adapted for jumping.
Major morphological differences from Caelifera:

a. Antennae of Ensifera much longer

(over 30 segments)
b. Ovipositor generally much longer:
needle-shaped or sword-shaped
c. Eggs almost always laid singly
d. sound production by stridulation:
done by rubbing front wings together:
(rubbing a sharp edge, the scraper, on left
wing along a file on ventral side of right wing)
--> both wings are elevated and moved back
and forth)

e. tympanum located on front tibia.

 SOME FAMILIAR ENSIFERA
1. Katydids - Family Tettigonidae
- Often are excellent leaf mimics
- Female with sword-shaped ovipositor.
- Most sing at night.
2. Crickets - Family Gryllidae

• Most sing at night

• Tree-crickets sing day and night, often in
chorus.
• Males noted for aggressive behavior and
territoriality.
• Females with needle-shaped ovipositors.
• Females attracted to loudest “calling song”.
 3. Mole crickets - Family Gryllotalpidae
• Burrow in moist ground (ex: river banks).
• Highly adapted for digging (front legs modified).
• Construct horned-shape “singing burrows”,
acoustically designed to amplify the distance
that the sound travels (amplifies the sound in
one direction) --> increases chance of females
to localize males.
 C. Family Phasmidae:
walking sticks and leaf insects

Features:
• Chewing
• Phytophagous; occasionally forest pests
(especially on eucalyptus trees)
• Elongated body
• Wings reduced or absent
• Very slow moving
• Do not jump
 Defenses
• All stages are camouflaged:
nymphs and adults are leaf or stick mimics
eggs are seed mimics
• Some species spray caustic sprays from
glands in prothorax
• Can readily shed their leg if grabbed (unlike
most insects, can regenerate a leg even in
adult stage)
Eggs
• For few species with reduced wings, can
open hind wing and startle flash of color.
 D. FAMILY MANTIDAE: Praying mantis
• Most tropical; large; elongate
bodies
• Slow moving.
• Raptorial front legs: front tibia and
femora armed with strong spines.
• Head is freely movable
• Elongated prothorax
 Lifestyle of mantids
• Predaceous
• Feed on a variety of insects
including other mantis
• Usually lie in wait for prey with
front legs in upright position.
• Often, well camouflaged
• Mimic leaves, bird droppings, and
flowers.
 MATING
Female usually eats male’s head.
She often decapitates him during copulation or after.

Possibilities:
• By only mating with males which courted her properly and eating
those others which did not, a female may ensure that her male
offspring will inherit the successful courtship behavior.
• Decapitation of male’s head releases the male’s genitalia from
nervous inhibition from the brain and leads to better copulation.
The terminal abdominal ganglion is developed to control genitalia
without brain, but, the subesophageal ganglion sends inhibitory
impulses to genitalia. Decapitation releases this inhibition.
• Male’ proteins are incorporated into the eggs.
Oviposition:
Female lays eggs laid in a frothy eggs-case.
Ootheca

Protection from predators :

(ex. birds, lizards…)

• Cryptic coloration
• Run away then quick flight
• Can open wings and display bright coloration
• Shed a leg (can regenerate a leg only if
mantis is young)
• Stab enemy with spiny legs.
 E. Family Blattidae: cockroaches
• Extremely ancient group (250 M years ago)
• Found everywhere; most are tropical.
• Cursorial animals: run very fast.
• Oval, flattened body; head concealed below
the pronotum.
• Wings present.
• Long cerci; long antennae.
• Stridulatory organs and tympana are absent
• Chewing mouthparts
• General feeders; primarily scavengers.
• Some are serious house pests.
• Not known to be a specific vector of
diseases
• But, can mechanically transmit diseases,
ex. Salmonella.
• Difficult to eradicate.
• Escape quickly, sense air vibrations
through cerci.
• Long-lived (1-4 years)
• Can produce many offspring (up to
1000 eggs).

• Unusual cockroaches:
Wood eating cockroaches digest
cellulose with help of symbionts in
their gut.
 Evolutionary trends in relationship
between mother and embryos:
 Eggs generally enclosed in hard case = ootheca.

 Most primitive species:

Secrete ootheca and drop it on the ground.
 Next most advanced:
Female retains ootheca in genital chamber until eggs
are near hatching.
 Most advanced types:
• Female draws back oothecal into genital chamber and
gives rise to live young.
• Mother supplies nutrients to developing eggs with
pseudoplancenta.
• Ootheca is poorly developed in this case.
Life cycle of cockroaches
End