Achurum Group - Spine-knee Toothpick Grasshoppers

equivalent to tribe Achurumini

group Achuri Hebard, 1922. Based on genus Achurum Saussure, 1861

tribe Achurumini (Hebard) Rehn & Hebard, 1960

tribe Achurimini; group Achuri (Hebard) G.E. Wixom, 1967

Only one North American genus Achurum is included. It has been associated with other Toothpick Grasshopper genera of the Mermeria group, but those (as well as similar genera in the subfamily Leptysminae) have at least a low tubercle between the base of the front legs and no spines pointing back from the "knees" of the hind legs. Another genus, Metaleptea has been included in a different genus group (and even sometimes a different subfamily - Hyalopteryginae), but is very similar to Achurum. It differs primarily in the stockier build and tegmina with "clipped" tips. Achurum should probably be included in the Hyalopterygini, but it differs also in usually having a stridulatory apparatus (a row of pegs on the inner hind femur) characteristic of subfamily Gomphocerinae (but absent in Hyalopterygini), so it has traditionally been grouped separately.

note: 2012. In a recently published molecular study [Chapco & Contreras 2012], the genus Achurm clearly groups together with other members of the Hyalopterigini, and not with any of the traditional groupings of more northern "Toothpick Grasshoppers".

southern North America, primarily in subtropical regions.