730 Grasshoppers and their Relatives subfamily exhibit extraordinary maternal care for their eggs and nymphs Phalangopsinae The spider crickets are characterized by having a rather robust body supported, in most cases, by very long, thin legs The antennae and palps in such forms are also extremely long and slender Wings are frequently reduced or absent, and some winged species lack the stridulatory apparatus in the male On the other hand, some species are loud singers, with a pleasing call, and males of several Asian species are greatly prized for their songs and are kept in special little cages as pets The subfamily includes about 380 species in nearly 100 genera, achieving the greatest diversity in the tropics of Central and South America Many species inhabit caves and rock crevices as well as spaces between buttress roots of trees in tropical forests Others prefer tree trunks, leaf litter, and decaying wood Oecanthinae The tree crickets are rather unusual members of the family Gryllidae, having a somewhat elongated, prognathous head and a rather long pronotum The wings can be either fully developed or completely absent Winged forms have a very well-developed stridulatory apparatus, capable of producing loud, pure sounds Males of the genus Oecanthus enhance the range of their call by positioning themselves in a hole chewed out in a leaf, with their tegmina aligned during singing with the surface of the leaf By doing this, they significantly increase the area from which the sound radiates, using the same principle on which speakers in radios and other musical appliances are built Thanks to this technique, these small insects are capable of becoming the dominant singers in many environments Females of tree crickets lay eggs in the stems of plants, and by doing so may damage young trees in nurseries and orchards, thus becoming pests On the other hand, many species feed on aphids, thus balancing the negative effect of their reproductive behavior wingless body and a small head with greatly reduced eyes The hind femora are short and enormously enlarged Ant-loving crickets seem unable to live without a close association with ants or termites Some species have a wide range of host species, whereas others are restricted to only one host species The nature of this association is unclear At least one myrmecophilous species, Myrmecophila manni from North America, appears to be able to mimic ant behavior to an extent that allows it to be fed by workers of its host, Formica obscuripes Another species, M oregonensis, feeds on residues of the substance that lubricates ants’ bodies, left on the walls of passageways A few species of these crickets appear to be parthenogenetic Their eggs are relatively large and their embryonic development is long, sometimes lasting over a year Schizodactyloidea (Splay-footed Crickets) The unusual superfamily Schizodactyloidea, which includes the single family Schizodactylidae, is unique in the peculiar modifications of the hind tarsi, which bear distinctive lobelike processes that help the insects move on soft, sandy substrates Species of the South African genus Comicus (Figure 4) are entirely wingless, whereas those of the southern Palearctic genus Schizodactylus have fully or partially developed wings The Indian S monstrosus has particularly long hindwings, which are coiled into tight, vertical spirals, a feature unique among all insects All species of splay-footed crickets are very agile and feed on a variety of insects A recently discovered fossil of splay-footed cricket indicates that forms remarkably similar to modern species were already present in Early Cretaceous period (approximately 108 million years ago.) Stenopelmatoidea (Camel Crickets, Jerusalem Crickets, and Raspy Crickets) Introduction Mogoplistidae (Scaly Crickets) Scaly crickets are small, rarely exceeding 15 mm in length Their name is derived from the fact that their entire body is covered with minute scales, reminiscent of the scales on the wings of butterflies and moths Similar to these insects, the scales on the body of scaly crickets often form beautiful color patterns However, unlike butterfly wings, the wings of scaly crickets are not covered with scales and are strongly reduced, often entirely concealed under a somewhat elongated pronotum About 370 species have been described, placed in 30 genera They are distributed worldwide, but Australia and the Indo-Malaysian region seem to have the largest share of known species The taxonomy and phylogeny of this group of the Orthoptera seems to be in a greater disarray than that of any other lineage of the order Many different names have been applied to this group of insects, and frequently various subgroups have been Myrmecophilidae (Ant-Loving Crickets) This small family seems to be closely related to Mogoplistidae and probably does not deserve the status of a separate family Only about 10 genera and fewer than 70 species are known, and all of these are closely associated with colonies of social insects, mostly ants, and less frequently termites All species are minute, sometimes less than 1.5 mm, with an oval, Figure Schizodactyloidea: Splay-footed cricket Comicus capensis from Namibia