Explanation of Names
Author of genus is Serville, 1839. The etymology of this genus name is obscure. Orche is perhaps related to the Greek orchestra, from orchesthai to dance. There is also an Old French word orchel, or archel referring to a type of violet dye. (Based on Internet searches and various print dictionaries.)
The limum or imum is obscure. Limum is Latin for "mire", or "muck", but perhaps the word is from Greek leimon meadow. (Source: Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary.) So this is a "meadow dancer" or a "muck dancer"?
Perhaps, however, Orche is related to orchis, Greek, testicle, (plural orches) which is the origin of the botanical orchids. A tough one!
Identification
Compare the, usually smaller, slimmer,
Lesser Meadow Katydids,
Conocephalus. Females of
Conocephalus usually have straight ovipositors, while female
Orchelimum have curved ovipositors. Many
Conocephalus seem to have a clear green "face", while many
Orchelimum have some white mottling or other coloration, such as red.
Some species are distinctly marked, such as Red-headed Meadow-katydid,
O. erythrocephalum. Most species are identified via examining the structure of the male cerci, see Capinera fig. 60
(2) or
Singing Insects of North America.
Range
Eastern and central North America, at least one species reaches California in west.
Habitat
Fields, meadows. Prefer wetter areas more than Conocephalus?
Season
Typically late summer to frost. August-November (North Carolina), July-October (Michigan)
Food
Food habits similar to
Conocephalus, eating flowers and seed os forbs, grasses, sedge fruits. Sometimes feed on leaves, flowers, and pollen of forbs and grasses. Occasionally predaceous and cannibalistic, more so than
Conocephalus.
(3)Life Cycle
Females oviposit in grass-stems, presumably, like Conocephalus. One generation per year.
Print References
Capinera, pp. 178-181, plate 39, fig. 60
(2)
Helfer pp. 265-266, fig. 408
(4)
Brimley, p. 20, gives season.
(5)
Rehn JAG, Hebard M. 1915a. Studies in American Tettigoniidae. IV. A synopsis of the species of the genus Orchelimum. Trans. Am. Entomol. Soc. 41: 11-83. See
reference page at SINA for a pdf version.
Contributed by
Cotinis on 13 September, 2004 - 9:20pm
Last updated 21 July, 2006 - 11:43am
