Panoploscelis
Sign in to savePanoploscelis (commonly referred to as spiny lobster katydids or giant lobster crickets) is a genus of very large insects belonging to the true katydid tribe Eucocconotini, which is a subfamily of the Tettigoniidae. Like the other members of the suborder Ensifera, Panoploscelis are part of the insect order Orthoptera, which also contains crickets, grasshoppers and locusts. Members of this genus are among the largest katydids of the Neotropics.
Article
10 sectionsContents
- Taxonomy
- Distribution
- Morphology
- Tegminal sound generator
- ''P. specularis''
- Behavior and ecology
- Defensive adaptations
- Relationship with humans
- References
- Further reading
Panoploscelis (commonly referred to as spiny lobster katydids or giant lobster crickets) is a genus of very large insects belonging to the true katydid tribe Eucocconotini, which is a subfamily of the Tettigoniidae. Like the other members of the suborder Ensifera, Panoploscelis are part of the insect order Orthoptera, which also contains crickets, grasshoppers and locusts. Members of this genus are among the largest katydids of the Neotropics.
These terrestrial, predatory insects are endemic to the remote and relatively inaccessible neotropical rainforests of Central and South America. Little is known about this genus, because data thus far have been collected from a very limited number of specimens. The first specimen, a female of the species P. armata, was described in 1869 by Samuel Hubbard Scudder. The male of the species P. specularis was described for the first time in 2003.