Gryllodes supplicans (Walker, 1859)

Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

Material examined.

Pakistan, Sindh Prov. • 2♀; Riffat; 3 Jul. 2019; Nara 34.6851°N, 135.8048°E , 1♀; Surriya; 4 Jul. 2019; Umerkot 25.3549°N, 69.7376°E .

Description.

Medium size, yellowish brown (Fig. 1I). Head small, narrow at the anterior, slightly curved at posterior. Face short, yellow with spotted clypeus. Frontal suture feebly arched (Fig. 2I). Pronotum transverse, feebly concave at anterior (Fig. 4I). Female elytra equilateral, reduced, extending to the extremity of abdomen. Wings caudate (Fig. 9C). Legs pubescent, yellowish, with few brown spots. Anterior tibia perforated on the external face with a rather long, oval tympanum (Fig. 6H). Abdomen brown with triangular median line on dorsal field. Ovipositor long, straight with narrow lanceolate apical valves (Fig. 1I).

Female: LH 3.15 (mm), LP 3.15 (mm), LT 4.2 (mm), LF 14 (mm), LT 10 (mm), LO 15 (mm), TBL 20 (mm).

Ecology.

Annandale (1924) reported that this species lives in crevices, mostly occurring in wood and frequently in holes of bungalows. During the present study, we collected this species from a stack of wood from Umerkot.

Khan (1954) noticed that all females of Gryllidae deposit more than 150 eggs when temperatures are favourable, between 20-25 °C with the relative humidity of 80-82%. At present, only females were captured and is longer in total body length (20 mm) with the ovipositor ca. 15 mm compared to Chopards’ (1969) report of total body length 12-15 mm and ovipositor 12-12.5 mm. This may be a geographical variant of the region; however, a detailed and comprehensive analysis of the taxa will be undertaken when more material will be collected.

Global distribution.

America, Singapore, Berlin, Ceylon, India, Malaysia, China, Sri-Lanka, and Pakistan (Cigliano et al. 2020).

Remarks.

Earlier, this species was collected by Chopard (1969) from various localities of India, but his specimens were smaller in size. The elytra of this species are longer than those of Sigillatus, leading to the question of whether this species could be a macropterous form of the proceeding one. Considering the extreme reduction of the elytra of the female of Sigillatus, it seems difficult to admit the possibility of a return to fully winged form. However, future studies with more samples should resolve this problem.