Long-winged Conehead

Appearance

The body of bush-crickets is covered by a protective exoskeleton and is divided into three parts: the head, thorax, and abdomen. The topmost segment of the thorax, the pronotum, is shaped like a saddle and is primarily used for protection. Bush-crickets are also equipped with large hind legs for jumping and biting mouth parts for grip and protection. The phenotypic aspects that are characteristic to this family of insects are the antennae, which typically exceed the length of their body, and the straight sword shaped ovipositor that the females use for laying eggs.

The body of "C. fuscus" is 16–22 millimetres when it reaches maturity. Its hind wings are longer than its forewings, and they both reach beyond the tip of the abdomen. A distinctive dorsal stripe runs down the thorax, covering its head and pronotum, which is 12–17 millimetres long. Adults have a slender grass-green body, brown wings, brown ovipositor, a reddish-brown abdomen, and a dark-brown stripe that edges white near the thorax. Nymphs differ slightly in colouration with a light-green body and a white-margined black stripe.

"C. fuscus" is a wing polymorphic species. Most wing-dimorphic tettigoniids have a brachypterous form and a macropterous form. However, since "C. fuscus" is already considered a long winged species, its alternative form is extra long winged, with wing lengths up to a third longer than normal individuals. An experiment performed by Ando and Hartley in 1982 on the embryonic development of this species provided evidence that the tendency for an individual to develop as one wing morph or the other is dependent on the density of the population. In this species the development of individuals with extra long wings is induced by crowding.

Wing dimorphism does not only affect wing length, but also affects flight, dispersal, and reproductive capability of this species. The juvenile hormone is responsible for wing polymorphism in orthoptera and has also been known to play a role in the trade-off between wing morphology and reproductive capability.

Naming

Some authorities, following H. Radclyffe Roberts, hold that this species should be referred to as "Conocephalus discolor". The debate hinges on whether the specific epithet used by Fabricius in the combination "Locusta fusca" should be regarded as preoccupied by the naming of a species by Pallas in 1773 as "GRYLLUS Locusta fuscus". Coray & Lehmann refute this on several grounds, most tellingly that Pallas and Fabricius are referring to two different nominal genera for which the name "Locusta" had been proposed - Pallas refers to Locusta Linnaeus, 1758, and Fabricius to Locusta Geoffroy, 1762. The apparent homonymy is therefore to be disregarded and "C. fuscus" is the correct valid name. There are, however, still abundant references to "C. discolor" in modern literature, as well as to "C. fuscus".

Distribution

"C. fuscus" can be found in parts of France, Italy, and the Netherlands, but it has made is biggest appearance in the United Kingdom. When the species was first discovered in Britain in the 1940s it was confined to the South Coast but in the 1980s there was dramatic population growth and its range expanded more than 150 miles in 20 years. Today the long-winged conehead can be found in northwestern parts of the country beyond the River Thames and as far west as Wales.

Behavior

"Conocephalus fuscus" is active during the day, and their main form of locomotion is walking. However, they use their large hind legs for jumping when under threat of predation."Conocephalus fuscus" has a univoltine life cycle, only producing one set of offspring per year. The females lay between their eggs in the stems of grasses in the late summer. They do this by first biting a whole into the stems of grasses or reeds and then insert their eggs using their ovipositors. The eggs develop over the winter months and the nymphs will begin to emerge in mid May and will reach adulthood between July and late October.

Habitat

"Conocephalus fuscus" shares the same habitat as many species of bush-crickets. It makes its home in grassy meadows, woodlands, dry heaths, and among course vegetation. They can also be found living near water in reed beds, marshes, or bogs. This species prefers areas with a warm climate, as evident by their recent northern dispersal due to the increase in global climate.

Food

This species is omnivorous, though its diet is mostly vegetarian. The long-winged conehead feeds primarily on grasses as well as small invertebrates such as aphids and caterpillars.

Defense

"Conocephalus fuscus" is active during the day, and their main form of locomotion is walking. However, they use their large hind legs for jumping when under threat of predation.