''Oedipoda germanica'', sometimes known as the "red-winged grasshopper" (although the name also may be used for '' O. miniata''), is a species of short-horned grasshoppers 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 Oedipodinae. This grasshopper is present in Austria, Belgium, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, Spain,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

, Czech Republic, 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 ...

. The adult males grow up to long, while the females reach of length. They can be encountered from early June through October in warm and dry stony or rocky habitats. They are almost exclusively phytophagous, mainly feeding in grass of mountain pastures and various herbaceous plants (''

Asperula cynanchica ''Asperula cynanchica'', the squinancywort or squincywort, is a species of flowering plant in the family Rubiaceae. Its common name is derived from its former use as a medicinal herb to cure quinsy. It is native to much of southern and central ...

'', ''

Galeopsis angustifolia ''Galeopsis ladanum'' var. ''angustifolia'', the red hemp-nettle, is a European annual plant growing to 30 cm tall. It flowers between June and October on waste ground, railway tracks, and other stony places. It is classified as criticall ...

'', ''

Hippocrepis comosa ''Hippocrepis comosa'', the horseshoe vetch, is a species of perennial flowering plant belonging to the genus '' Hippocrepis'' in the family Fabaceae. Description The overall appearance depends on its habitat: sometimes it forms upright clump ...

'', '' Teucrium chamaedrys'', etc.). The body is quite large and rounded. The basic coloration is brown-grayish, with transversal darker areas. The pronotum is equipped with a median carina of pronotum not much raised. The compound eyes are large. The delicate front wings are straight and narrow, their colour is beige with darker bands. The hind wings are red (while they are turquoise in ''

Oedipoda caerulescens The blue-winged grasshopper, ''Oedipoda caerulescens'', is a grasshopper in the genus '' Oedipoda''. Distribution This species occurs in Europe, North Africa and Asia. It was recently rediscovered in the Maltese islands. Morphological descrip ...

'') with a black band on margin and are fit for flight. The eggs - laid in clusters below the surface of the soil - hatch in next Spring. Femora of the hind legs are red on the bottom, while

tibiae The tibia (; ), also known as the shinbone or shankbone, is the larger, stronger, and anterior (frontal) of the two bones in the leg below the knee in vertebrates (the other being the fibula, behind and to the outside of the tibia); it connects ...

are yellowish in the females and black in males.

Subspecies

* ''Oedipoda germanica'' var. ''germanica'' (Latreille, 1804) * ''Oedipoda germanica'' var. ''kraussi'' Ramme, 1913 * ''Oedipoda germanica'' var. ''meridionalis'' Ramme, 1913 * ''Oedipoda germanica'' var. ''aurea'' Uvarov, 1923 - ''Oedipoda germanica'' var. ''aurea'' Uvarov, 1923

External links

Biolib

Orthoptera Species

* {{Authority control Oedipodinae Orthoptera of Europe Insects described in 1804 Taxa named by Pierre André Latreille Insects of Europe