Titanacris
{{short description|Genus of grasshoppers}}
{{Automatic taxobox
| image = Giant Purple-winged Grasshopper (Titanacris albipes) female (39701232652).jpg
| image_caption = Titanacris albipes
| taxon = Titanacris
| authority =Scudder, 1869Scudder (1869) Proc. Boston Soc. Nat. Hist. 12: 352.
| display_parents = 2
| synonyms = Lophacris {{small|Scudder, 1869}}
}}
Titanacris is a genus of large grasshoppers in the subfamily Romaleinae and tribe Tropidacrini. They are found from southeastern Mexico, through Central and South America, ranging south to northernmost Argentina.{{cite journal| last=Descamps | first=M. | last2=Carbonell | first2=C.S. | year=1985 | title=Revision of the Neotropical Arboreal Genus Titanacris (Orthoptera, Acridoidea, Romaleidae). | journal=Annales de la Société entomologique de France | volume=21 | issue=3 | pages=259-285 | doi=10.1080/21686351.1985.12278760 }}
Adult males are generally {{cvt|5-9|cm}} long and females {{cvt|7-13|cm}} long, but they are quite poorly known because they live high in the canopy of tropical forests, they are excellent fliers (not easily caught), and only T. albipes and T. velazquezii appear to regularly be attracted to artificial light at night. They are mostly green, but in flight they have conspicuously violet, red, orange-red or pink wings; their wings lack the dark rear edge and spotting seen in the closely related Tropidacris. The shape of the female's ovipositor indicates that the eggs are deposited in the soil, similar to the better-known Tropidacris.
Taxonomy
Titanacris and the closely related to Tropidacris form the tribe Tropidacrini, but the latter genus is generally better known.
There are seven recognized species in the genus Titanacris:[http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1116251 Orthoptera Species File]: genus Titanacris Scudder, 1869 (Version 5.0/5.0; retrieved 24 September 2021)]
- Titanacris albipes (De Geer, 1773) - type species (as Acrydium albipes De Geer, by subsequent designationKirby WF (1910) A Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera (Orthoptera Saltatoria, Locustidae vel Acridiidae) 3(2):674 pp.)
- Titanacris gloriosa (Hebard, 1924)
- Titanacris humboldtii (Scudder, 1869)
- Titanacris olfersii (Burmeister, 1838)
- Titanacris ornatifemur Descamps & Carbonell, 1985
- Titanacris picticrus (Descamps, 1978)
- Titanacris velazquezii (Nieto, 1857)
The type of Titanacris is T. albipes, a rather aberrant species compared to the remaining species, which sometimes have been placed in a separate genus, Lophacris, instead.
File:Titanacris Albipes Vol.jpg|Titanacris albipes
File:Titanacris picticrus picticrus MHNT.jpg|Titanacris picticrus
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{cite web|url= http://www.catalogueoflife.org/annual-checklist/2011/search/all/key/titanacris/match/1|title= Species 2000 & ITIS Catalogue of Life: 2014 Annual Checklist.|accessdate= 24 September 2021|author= Roskov Y., Kunze T., Orrell T., Abucay L., Paglinawan L., Culham A., Bailly N., Kirk P., Bourgoin T., Baillargeon G., Decock W., De Wever A., Didžiulis V. (ed)|year= 2014| publisher =Species 2000: Reading, UK.}}
- {{commonscat inline}}
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