World Species MAY 31 – European species The best way to tell the difference between Europe’s two species is by their song. One has a continuous trill and the other has short bursts of trilling. I no longer do identifications based on photos from Europe, as in my opinion there are many IDs of O. pellucens that could be O. dulcisonans and vice versa. http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128103 Here is the song of O. pellucens:  http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/PlaySound.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128103&SoundID=1410 http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128085 Here is the song of O. dulcisonans:  http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/PlaySound.aspx?TaxonNameID=1128085&SoundID=2548 I am not an expert in European species, but I find it interesting that there are 27 species in Africa, 21 species in the US, 20 species in Asia, 7 in Australia, but only two species described from all of Europe. Southern Europe is at the same latitude as states in the US that have at least 5-6 species. Knowing how similar different species can look (pine vs tamarack, forbes’ vs black-horned, snowy vs Riley’s, and Texas vs different-horned), I think it would be interesting to get widespread DNA testing and song recordings at measured temperatures. Tomorrow:  May will mostly be focused on young nymphs….but until they start emerging here in Wisconsin, I will post other tidbits. MAY 30 – Other African species There are four genera of tree crickets in Africa:  Oecanthus, Oecanthodes, Paraphasius and Viphyus. This paper by Dr. Rob Toms and Dr. Daniel Otte is by far the best source of information for African tree crickets:  New genera, species and records of East and southern African tree crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Oecanthinae) | Annals of the Transvaal Museum (journals.co.za) I created this table using the above paper and information on OSF (Orthoptera Species File). MAY 29 – Oecanthus capensis – Cape Thermometer Cricket South Africa One of the easier species from Africa to ID. They have … Continue reading MAY