Ripipterygidae is a family of

insect Insects (from Latin ') are pancrustacean hexapod invertebrates of the class Insecta. They are the largest group within the arthropod phylum. Insects have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body ( head, thorax and abdomen), three pairs ...

s in the order

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – grassho ...

. Members of the family are commonly known as mud crickets.

Description

Ripipterygids are small, often dark-colored, cricket-like orthopterans, between 3 and 14 mm in length. They closely resemble the related tridactylids. Like tridactylids, they have greatly expanded hind femora, and have the ability to swim and jump from the surface of water. They can be distinguished from tridactylids by their uninflated

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 ...

on the middle pair of legs, unsegmented cerci, rows of comblike teeth on the

epiproct This glossary of entomology describes terms used in the formal study of insect species by entomologists. A–C A synthetic chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide, toxic to vertebrates. Though i ...

, and

seta In biology, setae (singular seta ; from the Latin word for "bristle") are any of a number of different bristle- or hair-like structures on living organisms. Animal setae Protostomes Annelid setae are stiff bristles present on the body. Th ...

e at the tips of the cerciform lobes on the

paraproct Insect morphology is the study and description of the physical form of insects. The terminology used to describe insects is similar to that used for other arthropods due to their shared evolutionary history. Three physical features separate insec ...

, as well as through characters of the genitalia. Species in the genus ''Ripipteryx'' are typically black or dark brown and often metallic; many are boldly colored or strikingly patterned, with sharply contrasting white, yellow, and/or red markings. Members of the genus ''Mirhipipteryx'' are typically smaller and more drably colored.

Distribution and habitat

Ripipterygids are restricted to the Neotropics. They can be found from southern Mexico south to central South America. Like tridactylids, they are typically found in riparian areas, on bare soil, sand, and mud, as well as on rocks, and – in some species – low vegetation in, near, or above water. In at least some species, individuals are not distributed evenly throughout appropriate habitat, but rather are found in groups.

Biology

Ripipterygids have been comparatively little-studied, and many aspects of their biology are poorly known, with behavioral observations having only been made on a handful of species.

Locomotion

Like tridactylids, ripipterygids walk quadrupedally using only their first two pairs of legs, and the hind legs are only used for jumping and swimming. Ripipterygids fly when disturbed, often landing on water and swimming back to shore.

Diet and foraging

Ripipterygids are herbivorous, and have been recorded feeding on a variety of different plants, as well as foraging on the ground. Foraging ripipterygids may leave networks of shallow tracks in sandy or muddy soil near waterways.

Burrowing

At least some ripipterygids build short burrows or oval-shaped cells in clay soil or sand, on both flat ground and in vertical banks. These burrows are used for temporary shelter, and may also be used for protection while molting.

Daily activity pattern

Species vary in their activity patterns; some are most active during dawn and dusk, and others are active throughout the day even in direct sunlight. One species studied was nocturnal.

Breeding

In ''Ripipteryx notata'' in Uruguay (near the southern limit of the family's geographic distribution), females oviposit eggs singly in bare soil in spring and summer. Nymphs are present in summer and early autumn (whereas adults are present year-round). Unlike in grasshoppers, embryonic molt has not been observed to occur in ripipterygids.

Predation

Fish have been recorded preying on swimming ripipterygids.

Taxonomy and evolution

Ripipterygids, tridactylids, and sandgropers comprise the superfamily

Tridactyloidea Tridactyloidea is a superfamily in the order Orthoptera. The insects are sometimes known as pygmy mole crickets but they are Caelifera and not members of the mole cricket suborder Ensifera, unlike the true mole crickets, the Gryllotalpidae ...

within the suborder Caelifera (grasshoppers and relatives). The tridactyloids are sister to the remainder of Caelifera. Within Tridactyloidea, ripipterygids are sister to tridactylids; the two families are estimated to have diverged between 150 and 175 million years ago. Ripipterygids were initially included in the family Tridactylidae. They were first elevated to family rank (as Rhipipterygidae) in 1939. The classification of the family was extensively revised in a series of works by Kurt Günther between the 1960s and 1990s. However, the taxonomic diversity of the family, particularly in Central America, is still incompletely known. Two extant genera of ripipterygids are recognized: ''Mirhipipteryx'' and ''Ripipteryx''. Since the 1960s, the genus ''Ripipteryx'' has been divided into five species groups, based primarily on characters of the male genitalia. However, there is evidence that these groups are not

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

. In addition, ''Ripipteryx'' itself may be

paraphyletic In taxonomy (general), taxonomy, a group is paraphyletic if it consists of the group's most recent common ancestor, last common ancestor and most of its descendants, excluding a few Monophyly, monophyletic subgroups. The group is said to be pa ...

with respect to ''Mirhipipteryx'', suggesting additional taxonomic revision of the family is required. Both ''Mirhipipteryx'' and ''Ripipteryx'' have representatives distributed throughout the geographic distribution of the family, as do all of the ''Ripipteryx'' species groups apart from the Scrofulosa group, the members of which are all restricted to Central America.

List of species

The following

recent The Holocene ( ) is the current geological epoch. It began approximately 11,650 cal years Before Present (), after the Last Glacial Period, which concluded with the Holocene glacial retreat. The Holocene and the preceding Pleistocene together ...

genera, species and subspecies of Ripipterygidae are recognized by OSF: * '' Mirhipipteryx'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx acuminata'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx andensis'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx biloba'' (Hebard, 1928) *** ''M. b. aberrans'' Günther, 1989 *** ''M. b. biloba'' (Hebard, 1928) *** ''M. b. chiriquensis'' Günther, 1969 *** ''M. b. incurvata'' Günther, 1989 *** ''M. b. riofriensis'' Günther, 1969 *** ''M. b. sevillensis'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx columbiana'' (Günther, 1963) *** ''M. c. columbiana'' (Günther, 1963) *** ''M. c. tenaensis'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx disparilobata'' Günther, 1989 ** '' Mirhipipteryx hebardi'' (Chopard, 1931) ** '' Mirhipipteryx hondurica'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx hubbelli'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx imperfecta'' Günther, 1989 ** '' Mirhipipteryx lilo'' Günther, 1969 *** ''M. lil. granchacensis'' Günther, 1977 *** ''M. lil. lilo'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx lineata'' Günther, 1989 *** ''M. lin. anchicayensis'' Günther, 1994 *** ''M. lin. lineata'' Günther, 1989 ** '' Mirhipipteryx lucieni'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx magdalenensis'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx panamica'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx peruviana'' (Saussure, 1896) ** '' Mirhipipteryx phallica'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx pronotopunctata'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx pulicaria'' (Saussure, 1896) *** ''M. pu. interposita'' Günther, 1969 *** ''M. pu. pulicaria'' (Saussure, 1896) ** '' Mirhipipteryx schuchmanni'' Günther, 1994 ** '' Mirhipipteryx striatipes'' (Chopard, 1954) ** '' Mirhipipteryx triangulata'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx unispinosa'' Günther, 1989 ** '' Mirhipipteryx variabilis'' Günther, 1969 ** '' Mirhipipteryx venezuelensis'' Günther, 1976 * '' Ripipteryx'' Newman, 1834 ** Limbata-Marginata group *** '' Ripipteryx boliviana'' Bruner, 1916 *** '' Ripipteryx cruciata'' Bruner, 1916 *** '' Ripipteryx cyanipennis'' Saussure, 1874 *** '' Ripipteryx furcata'' Günther, 1976 *** '' Ripipteryx hydrodroma'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx lawrencei'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx limbata'' (Burmeister, 1838) *** '' Ripipteryx marginata'' Newman, 1834 *** '' Ripipteryx notata'' (Burmeister, 1838) *** '' Ripipteryx ornata'' Chopard, 1927 *** '' Ripipteryx rivularia'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx saopauliensis'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx trilobata'' Saussure, 1874 *** '' Ripipteryx trimaculata'' Günther, 1969 ** Crassicornis group *** '' Ripipteryx antennata'' Hebard, 1924 *** '' Ripipteryx atra'' Serville, 1838 *** '' Ripipteryx capotensis'' Günther, 1970 *** '' Ripipteryx crassicornis'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx gorgonaensis'' Baena-Bejarano & Heads, 2015 *** '' Ripipteryx laticornis'' Günther, 1963 *** '' Ripipteryx nodicornis'' Hebard, 1924 ** Forceps group *** '' Ripipteryx carbonaria'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx diegoi'' Baena-Bejarano, 2015 *** '' Ripipteryx ecuadoriensis'' Günther, 1962 *** '' Ripipteryx forceps'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx nigra'' Günther, 1963 *** '' Ripipteryx paraprocessata'' Günther, 1989 *** '' Ripipteryx pasochoensis'' Heads, 2010 *** '' Ripipteryx processata'' Günther, 1969 ** Marginipennis group *** '' Ripipteryx amazonica'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx brasiliensis'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx bruneri'' Chopard, 1920 *** '' Ripipteryx difformipes'' Chopard, 1956 *** '' Ripipteryx femorata'' Chopard, 1956 *** '' Ripipteryx guacharoensis'' Baena-Bejarano & Heads, 2015 *** '' Ripipteryx insignis'' Chopard, 1937 *** '' Ripipteryx luteicornis'' Chopard, 1920 *** '' Ripipteryx marginipennis'' Bruner, 1916 *** '' Ripipteryx sturmi'' Günther, 1963 *** '' Ripipteryx vicina'' Chopard, 1956 ** Scrofulosa group *** '' Ripipteryx biolleyi'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx mediolineata'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx mexicana'' Saussure, 1859 *** '' Ripipteryx mopana'' Heads & Taylor, 2012 *** '' Ripipteryx saltator'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx saussurei'' Günther, 1969 *** '' Ripipteryx scrofulosa'' Saussure, 1896 *** '' Ripipteryx tricolor'' Saussure, 1896 In addition, two fossil species have been described, both based on individuals preserved in amber in regions of the world where the family no longer occurs: '' Mirhipipteryx antillarum'' Heads, 2010 (from early

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and means "less recen ...

amber from Hispaniola), and '' Archaicaripipteryx rotunda'' Xu, Zhang, Jarzembowski & Fang, 2020 (from mid-

Cretaceous The Cretaceous ( ) is a geological period that lasted from about 145 to 66 million years ago (Mya). It is the third and final period of the Mesozoic Era, as well as the longest. At around 79 million years, it is the longest geological period of th ...

Burmese amber).

References

External links

* *
observations of Ripipterygidae on iNaturalist
{{Taxonbar, from=Q3433032 Caelifera Orthoptera families