Scapteriscus vicinus

Frank, J. H., Vicente, N. E. & Leppla, N. C., 2007, A history of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae) in Puerto Rico, Insecta Mundi 2007 (4), pp. 1-10 : 4-5

‘ Scapteriscus vicinus Scudder’

Rehn and Hebard (1916), prominent U.S. orthopteran taxonomists, pronounced that they “were satisfied that the species found abundantly in the southeastern United States, the West Indies and portions of South America, and which has been frequently recorded as S. didactylus , represents instead [S.] vicinus of Scudder.” Thenceforward, from 1916, Puerto Rican entomologists (and those in the Lesser Antilles) began using the name ‘ Scapteriscus vicinus ’ for ‘la changa.’ This interpretation was later shown to be wrong; Chopard (1968) accepted that West Indian populations belong to S. didactylus , not to S. vicinus ; Nickle and Castner (1984) distinguished S. didactylus and S. vicinus in a key: the species is correctly S. didactylus for West Indian specimens, but not those from the southeastern United States. The correction was ignored by applied entomologists in Puerto Rico almost through the end of the 20 th century.

Zwaluwenburg (1918) outdid Barrett (1902) by writing a lengthier account of ‘the changa or West Indian mole cricket’, which he called ‘ S. vicinus ’ and described its development, behavior, and the extensive damage it caused to various crops.

Wolcott (1924a, 1936, 1948), in successive catalogues of the Puerto Rican insect fauna, reported ‘ S. vicinus ’ as a major pest there. Wolcott (1936) equated the 18 th century specimen(s) listed by Ledru (1957) with ‘ S. vicinus .’ He also equated Stahl’s and Gundlach’s ‘ N. hexadactyla ’ with ‘ S. vicinus .’ It is clear that Wolcott (1924a, 1936, 1948) had no knowledge of the existence of N. hexadactyla in Puerto Rico, and was deluded into accepting ‘ S. vicinus ’ as the correct name of the mole cricket commonly called ‘la changa’, which in reality is S. didactylus .

In fact, S. vicinus has not been shown to occur anywhere in the West Indies. Specimens referred to this species in the West Indian literature seem to belong to S. didactylus .