Morocco continued Orthoptera and pope´s hat

So we continued our days in semi dessert areas passing the kilometers in the sun. Have i mentioned how hot it was there? Because it was fricki´n hot. But also beautiful and such an alien landscape for a Norwegian person. Also I have to say that the Moroccan people were great and full of humor, hospitality and smiles, even though most of the time our skills of communication were far below any decent level. 

Eventually we gt to more of a agricultural areas with water irrigation and good farmland. Still hot and dry but with good soil. Here there were a lot of different grasshoppers. I found several other different groups of animals here and they will be taken care of in another post.

Orthoptera suborder Caelifera  family Acrididae

Quite well camouflaged

The first thre photos are taken in a different locations and they were quite a bit smaller than the fully adult shown below. This might be because they are a different species or they are just juveniles.

 Truxalis nasuta

Truxalis nasuta

So then we moved up into the mountains close to Taza where we found a wonderful agricultural area. Here the first thing i came across was this great cricket with a visor on top of its head. 

Sciobia ssp.

The species is a bit hard to determine since the differences are small details.  

This is a male distinguished from females based on the size of the visor or "hat". I must admit it kind of look like the pope hat mitre. However it looks better on this guy.

Esporles and other areas

Last Sunday I had a great day with some colleagues, and later in the day we went for a walk I am not the only insect/bug nut around here so we brought the camera to have a look. As I have said I is still quite early in the season but I still found some cool subjects. Viewers’ discretion is advised. It is springtime and that can only mean one thing...well several things, but this as well.

Locusta migratoria; a lot of reasearch is done on this Migratory locust.  Here we see the male and female. Female is the larger one. 

Carabidae and probably also a Carabus. With a little help and expert consult:

Carabus (Macrothorax) morbillosus

Esporles is as I mentioned where I work. It is a little town in a valley with a "torrente" meaning a river with only water when it rains. The geology of Mallorca is porous so when the rain comes it runs down and collects very fast into these rivers. It is also surrounded with mountains for walking in and discovering cool things. After work then a group of us took a trip walking up one of these mountains. It has a statue of Jesus on top (welcome to Spain) with one arm disproportionately larger than the other.  Further up there is a small monastery. This is the view we were rewarded on the top of the mountain.   

On the trip I was looking under every rock and looking on every bit of old wood I could come across. I found at least two different species of Isopoda. Another day I will find time to photograph them. One was from the genus Armadillidium. Those are the ones that roll up to an almost perfect ball. Also we found this Diplopoda which I am sure is a Julidae as the family, but I need more literature (keep coming back to that) before I can determine with some certainty. Diplopoda or millipedes belong to the Myriopoda and these are determined by the two paired legs per segment. Some of these secrete hydrogen cyanide as a defense mechanism. This has in some cases backfired as some monkeys rub them on their fur as a mosquito repellent roll-on. A great example of adaptation.   

Diplopoda Julidae

And this one I am kicking myself for not flipping over and make sure but I think this is a Tenebrionidae  after some expert advice. And perhaps it is in the genus Blaps and it might also be the species gigas.

   That is all for now, But I surely will be bringing more posts in the near future. I will soon go for a trip home to Norway so I cannot promise anything for next two weeks. On the other hand I will surely have new material from the trip so stay tuned.