Gryllus ovisopis Walker, 1974

Weissman, David B. & Gray, David A., 2019, Crickets of the genus Gryllus in the United States (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllinae), Zootaxa 4705 (1), pp. 1-277 : 41

Gryllus ovisopis Walker, 1974

Taciturn Wood Cricket

Fig. 23

Gryllus ovisopis Walker, 1974 Florida Entomologist 57:13. Holotype male, Florida, Alachua County , deposited in USNM, type #72970. Holotype male and allotype female both listed on USNM type webpage and specimens located and photographed by Floyd Shockley and Kayla Kramer ( Fig. 23 ).

Recognition characters and song. This species is an egg overwintering, obligate egg diapausing, fall maturing species where adults first appear in September, and whose documented US distribution includes 3 states (Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina) but may include as many as 6 southeastern states: Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana ( Capinera et al. 2004, Walker 2019). Head is narrower than pronotum. Males produce no calling song, but do naturally produce both aggressive and courtship songs, and can be chemically induced to produce a feeble 3–5 pulse chirp structurally similar to G. pennsylvanicus and G. firmus songs ( Gray et al. 2018).

DNA. Multilocus 2018-001 and 2016-035, courtesy of Kevin Judge’s cultures, from samples originally from the type locality of Gainesville, FL., show (Gray et al. 2019) that nearest multilocus relative is non-taciturn, non-egg diapausing G. thinos , the latter known only from coastal Texas. In the absence of genetic sequencing data, Walker (1974) believed G. fultoni , and perhaps G. firmus , to be the nearest relatives. Harrison & Bogdanowicz (1995) showed a single clade of G. ovisopis , G. pennsylvanicus , and G. firmus with 1.3% separation for the whole group; Huang et al. (2000) found similar results.

Discussion. With the exception of a single male nymph caught 22-vii-2002 (DAG FLA02-311) in Yulee, Nassua Co., FL, we have no field experience with this species. Therefore, the interested reader is referred to Walker (1974, 2019) and Capinera et al. (2004).

Figures

FIGURE 23. Male holotype (right) and female allotype (left) G. ovisopis.