Maura lurida (Fabricius, 1781)

Hemp, Claudia, 2013, Annotated list of Ensifera (Orthoptera) and further records on Caelifera (Orthoptera) of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Zootaxa 3613 (4), pp. 301-342 : 335

Maura lurida (Fabricius, 1781)

Distribution. Eritrea, Kenya, Belgian Congo, Ghana, Togo, Dahomey, Nigeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, Zanzibar (Dirsh 1965).

Recorded from Mt Kilimanjaro by Bolivar (1904) as M. venusta .

Habitat. On bushes in forest and in gardens at Fourah Bay College, Sierra Leone; one generation per year in Sierra Leone (Phipps 1970). Found in colline bush-tree savanna at the south-eastern slopes of Mt Kilimanjaro.

Remarks. The savanna type in which Maura lurida was recovered has been largely destroyed around Mt Kilimanjaro. Therefore habitat destruction is the probable reason for the scarcity of this small flightless species on Mt Kilimanjaro. Maura lurida was also found in a similar habitat, in dry bush/treeland, on the foothills of Mt Kasigau in Kenya.