Schizodactylus inexspectatus

Schizodactylus inexspectatus (often misspelled "inexpectatus") is a species of dune cricket (Schizodactylidae) endemic to sand dunes of Çukurova and Göksu Deltas, Turkey.^[1]

Taxonomic history[]

Schizodactylus inexspectatus was first described by Franz Werner in 1901 under the name Comicus inexspectatus.^[2] It was transferred to the genus Schizodactylus in 1931.^[1] The species was known from only a single individual and was not found again for almost a century, with the species generally thought to be extinct, but it was rediscovered in the Çukurova Delta after almost a century.^[3]

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. inexspectatus feeds on the mole cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, the beetles Scarabaeus sacer, , , and , 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 .

References[]