Large marsh grasshopper

Large marsh grasshopper
	In Germany
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Suborder:	Caelifera
Family:	Acrididae
Genus:	Stethophyma
Species:	S. grossum
Binomial name
	Stethophyma grossum; (Linnaeus, 1758)
Synonyms
	List Acridium grossum (Linnaeus, 1758); Acrydium rubripes' De Geer, 1773; Euryphymus rubripes (De Geer, 1773); Gryllus flavipes Gmelin, 1790; Gryllus germanicus Stoll, C., 1813; Gryllus grossum Linnaeus, 1758; Mecostethus grossus (Linnaeus, 1758); Oedipoda grossa (Linnaeus, 1758); Stethophyma flavipes (Gmelin, 1788); Stethophyma germanicus (Stoll, C., 1813); Stethophyma rubripes (De Geer, 1773); ;

The large marsh grasshopper^[2] (Stethophyma grossum) is a species of grasshopper belonging to the family Acrididae.^[3]

Taxonomy

The large marsh grasshopper was first described in the 10th edition of Systema Naturae, which was written by Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus in 1758. Linnaeus considered all orthopteran insects to be members of the genus Gryllus, and gave the scientific name Gryllus grossus to this species.^[4] Later authors split the orthopterans into multiple genera, and the large marsh grasshopper would therefore be reclassified. French zoologist Pierre André Latreille moved the species into Acrydium in 1804, renaming it as Acrydium grossum, while French entomologist Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville assigned it to Oedipoda in 1839 under the name Oedipoda grossa, and German entomologist Franz Xaver Fieber considered it a member of Mecostethus which he renamed as Mecostethus grossus in 1853.^[5]^[6]^[7] Later that year, German zoologist Leopold Heinrich Fischer published a book reviewing the orthopterans of Europe in which he determines that the large marsh grasshopper cannot be assigned to any existing genus. He therefore established the genus Stethophyma, of which this species was designated as the type species, renaming the large marsh grasshopper as Stethophyma grossum.^[8] In 1983, British entomologist Judith Marshall reanalysed the original specimens studied by Linnaeus and designated one kept by the Linnean Society of London as the lectotype specimen, as Linnaeus had studied multiple specimens without designating one as a single type specimen. The chosen lectotype is the body of a female catalogued as "No. 58", which Marshall noted has been partly damaged by beetles and the left antenna is missing.^[9]

Several authors have established new species based on grasshopper specimens before these were later realized to be large marsh grasshoppers. Swedish entomologist Charles De Geer established a species which he named Acrydium rubripes in 1773, and naturalist Caspar Stoll gave the name Gryllus (Locusta) germanicus in 1813 to a grasshopper species he established.^[10]^[11] The type specimens of both these species were collected in Europe and are now probably lost.^[12] When establishing the genus Stethophyma in 1853, Fischer declared that neither of these supposed species were significantly different from the large marsh grasshopper and therefore should be considered junior synonyms of S. grossum.^[8] In addition, German naturalist Johann Friedrich Gmelin erected a species named Gryllus flavipes in 1789, which was synonymized with S. grossum by British entomologist William Forsell Kirby in 1910.^[13]^[14]

Description

The large marsh grasshopper is a large insect, with females reaching a body length of 25.9–39.1 mm (1.02–1.54 in), though males are smaller and only grow 11.8–25 mm (0.46–0.98 in) long.^[12] In the United Kingdom, this size makes it the largest of the native grasshopper species.^[15]

Distribution and habitat

S. grossum is found throughout Europe, with a few records from western Asia. In the British Isles it is restricted to the New Forest, Dorset, and Somerset Wells and Ireland. It is the largest species of grasshopper to be found in the British Isles.

The habitat is typically wet meadow and marsh throughout its range.^[16] In southern England, the species is most often found in "quaking" sphagnum moss bogs.^[2]