Ceuthophilus seclusus
Identification 3
Among the Ceuthophilus camel crickets in Iowa, this species is one of the easiest to identify. The last segment (tergite) on the abdomen is flanged or upturned. I have uploaded photos of line drawings from Hubbell (1936) to this guide that show this last segment (I believe copyright has expired on this work because Hubbell passed in 1968). These diagrams are also reproduced at Orthoptera Species File (OSF). This photo at BugGuide also shows the upturned segment: https://bugguide.net/node/view/996538.
C. seclusus also sometimes has a deformed pronotum (apparently only in males). This is a natural feature, not a wound, as you might assume. Based on range maps in Hubbell (1936), the deformed pronotum form is more common to the south in Missouri and in Iowa they can be either deformed or not.
This is a medium sized camel cricket, with body length at 12-18 mm. Coloring is not diagnostic, but often has a orangish dorsal stripe on a dark brown abdomen, fading to yellowish or whitish on the sides. Hubbell (1936) notes that the dorsal stripe varied in prominence.
The only references available for this species are old literature from the early 20th century and the original description in 1896. References consulted for this species are listed below in the Resources section.
Resources 3
Orthoptera Species File (http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1130182) has diagrams of S. seclusus and links to literature.
References Consulted:
Scudder, S.H., 1894, May. The North American Ceuthophili. In Proceedings of the American academy of arts and sciences (Vol. 30, pp. 17-113). American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Blatchley, W.S., 1920. Orthoptera of northeastern America: with especial reference to the faunas of Indiana and Florida. Nature Publishing Company. pp. 616-617, 629.
Hebard, M., 1931. The Orthoptera of Kansas. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 83, pp.119-227.
Hubbell, T.H., 1936. A monographic revision of the genus Ceuthophilus (Orthoptera, Gryllacrididae, Rhaphidophorinae) (Vol. 2, No. 1). University of Florida.
These are available on the internet, except for Hubbell (1936). Luckily the Iowa State University library had a copy in storage that I was able to check out. It is 551 pages + plates. I assume the length is why it hasn't been converted to digital form yet.
Occurrence 3
Hubbell (1936) has a range map showing this species occurring in most of Iowa (except far north and northeast), most of Missouri and into northern Arkansas, and the southern 2/3 of Illinois.
The type locality (the location where the specimen was collected that defines this species name) for this species is Dallas County, Iowa. In the original description in Scudder (1894), specimens were found in Dallas and Crawford Counties in Iowa, and West Point, Nebraska (Cuming County). Hebard (1931) indicates that the Nebraska record was actually C. maculatus.
BugGuide has 2 records, both from Arkansas. iNaturalist has a few observations that look good for C. seclusus. This one may be the best: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/299059. Note the upturned last segment and deformed pronotum.
Habitat 3
According to Hebard (1934), this species "is one of most abundant species of the Ozark Plateaus and widely distributed in the prairie regions, where it occurs in open woodlands and in stream margins forest." I assume Iowa is mostly "prairie regions." Hubbell (1936) noted the large numbers of individuals were collected on a hillside of dry forest with stony soil in Missouri. Specimens from Iowa were recorded as from "prairie hills."
Fontes e Créditos
- (c) bwhiteley, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-NC), uploaded by bwhiteley
- (c) Tyler Grant, todos os direitos reservados, uploaded by Tyler Grant
- (c) Tyler Grant, alguns direitos reservados (CC BY-SA)
