Italian locust (Calliptamus italicus) female

''Calliptamus italicus'', the Italian locust, is a species of 'short-horned grasshopper' belonging to the family

Acrididae The AcrididaeMacLeay WS (1821) ''Horae Entomologicae or Essays on the Annulose Animals'' 2 are the predominant family of grasshoppers, comprising some 10,000 of the 11,000 species of the entire suborder Caelifera. The Acrididae are best known bec ...

, subfamily

Calliptaminae The Calliptaminae are a subfamily of grasshoppers containing species found in Africa, Europe and Asia; some are economically important. It was originally erected as a tribe by G.G. Jacobson in 1905 as the "Calliptamini", later uprated by Dirsh ...

. This species is native of the

steppe In physical geography, a steppe () is an ecoregion characterized by grassland plains without trees apart from those near rivers and lakes. Steppe biomes may include: * the montane grasslands and shrublands biome * the temperate grasslands, ...

s of Central Asia, but it is also present in most of

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

, in the eastern

Palearctic realm The Palearctic or Palaearctic is the largest of the eight biogeographic realms of the Earth. It stretches across all of Eurasia north of the foothills of the Himalayas, and North Africa. The realm consists of several bioregions: the Euro-Sibe ...

, in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

, and in the

Near East The ''Near East''; he, המזרח הקרוב; arc, ܕܢܚܐ ܩܪܒ; fa, خاور نزدیک, Xāvar-e nazdik; tr, Yakın Doğu is a geographical term which roughly encompasses a transcontinental region in Western Asia, that was once the hist ...

Distribution and habitat

''Calliptamus italicus'' is found in Western Europe and Central Asia. Its range extends from North Africa and the countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea to Central Europe, Central Asia, Mongolia and western Siberia. These grasshoppers can be encountered from July through October. It thrives in warm dry habitats with sparse vegetation cover such as grasslands and rocky steppes, old quarries, gravel pits, rock-strewn areas beside rivers, sand dunes and fallow land.

Description

Calliptamus italicus - esemplare giovane - 01

''Calliptamus italicus'' is a medium-sized grasshopper characterized by a significant sexual dimorphism. The adult males grow up to long, while females reach of length. This species is quite variable in size and colour. The basic coloration of the body varies from gray to brownish-reddish. The wings have a characteristic reddish or pinkish coloration, better visible when the insect is in flight. Quite evident is the dilating membrane ('pallium') of the subgenital plate of males.

Ecology

''Calliptamus italicus'' is a

polyphagous Feeding is the process by which organisms, typically animals, obtain food. Terminology often uses either the suffixes -vore, -vory, or -vorous from Latin ''vorare'', meaning "to devour", or -phage, -phagy, or -phagous from Greek φαγε ...

species, able to feed upon various wild plants, but also on crops, especially legumes.

Alfalfa Alfalfa () (''Medicago sativa''), also called lucerne, is a perennial flowering plant in the legume family Fabaceae. It is cultivated as an important forage crop in many countries around the world. It is used for grazing, hay, and silage, as w ...

(''Medicago sativa'') is among the species preferred by juveniles, but there have been reported sporadic cases of infestation on grains and grapevine. It feeds on a variety of plants in the

families Family (from la, familia) is a group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its members and of society. Ideall ...

Asteraceae The family Asteraceae, alternatively Compositae, consists of over 32,000 known species of flowering plants in over 1,900 genera within the order Asterales. Commonly referred to as the aster, daisy, composite, or sunflower family, Compositae w ...

Chenopodiaceae Amaranthaceae is a family of flowering plants commonly known as the amaranth family, in reference to its type genus ''Amaranthus''. It includes the former goosefoot family Chenopodiaceae and contains about 165 genera and 2,040 species, making it ...

and

Poaceae Poaceae () or Gramineae () is a large and nearly ubiquitous family of monocotyledonous flowering plants commonly known as grasses. It includes the cereal grasses, bamboos and the grasses of natural grassland and species cultivated in lawns an ...

. Their life cycle lasts one year. The egg-laying takes place in late August - early September, usually in rocky areas exposed to the south. The female lays eggs in the soil within an

ootheca An ootheca (pl. ''oothecae'' ) is a type of egg mass made by any member of a variety of species including mollusks (such as ''Turbinella laevigata''), mantises, and cockroaches. The word is a Latinized combination of ''oo-'', meaning "egg", f ...

that can hold 25 to 55 eggs wrapped in a spongy secretion. The appearance of the larvae takes place in May–June; the first adults appear in July. In certain circumstances this species may develop a tendency to gregariousness with formation of very numerous aggregates, potentially harmful to crops. It normally occurs in low densities in undisturbed sparse grassland but disappears when the land is cultivated. It occurs in high densities in uncultivated land that is invaded by ''

Artemisia Artemisia may refer to: People * Artemisia I of Caria (fl. 480 BC), queen of Halicarnassus under the First Persian Empire, naval commander during the second Persian invasion of Greece * Artemisia II of Caria (died 350 BC), queen of Caria under th ...

'', and on overgrazed pastures with weeds and bare ground. Under these conditions it can become gregarious and form locust swarms. After the breakup of the USSR in 1991, much agricultural land was left uncultivated. This gave ideal conditions for the Italian locust to breed and build up in numbers, and Kazakhstan suffered a devastating locust plague between 1998 and 2001.

Subspecies

* ''C. italicus'' var. ''albotibialis'' Nedelkov, 1907 * ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Nedelkov, 1907 The following subspecies proposed in the past are no longer accepted. They are currently included in the nominal subspecies. * ''C. italicus'' var. ''carbonaria'' Uvarov, 1914 - ''C. coelesyriensis'' (Giglio-Tos, 1893) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''reductus'' Ramme, 1927 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''bilineata'' Puschnig, 1910 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''insularis '' Ramme, 1951 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''afghanus'' Ramme, 1952 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''grandis'' Ramme, 1927 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''gilvonigricans'' Voroncovskij, 1927 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758) * ''C. italicus'' var. ''blandus'' Ivanov, 1888 - ''C. italicus'' var. ''italicus'' Linnaeus, 1758)

References

External links

Biolib

Orthoptera Species

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1675141 Acrididae Grasshoppers described in 1758 Orthoptera of Europe Taxa named by Carl Linnaeus