Acrotylus insubricus (Scopoli, 1786)

Skejo, Josip, Rebrina, Fran, Szövényi, Gergely, Puskás, Gellért & Tvrtković, Nikola, 2018, The first annotated checklist of Croatian crickets and grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Ensifera, Caelifera), Zootaxa 4533 (1), pp. 1-95 : 64

66. Acrotylus insubricus (Scopoli, 1786) = debelonogi pješčarski skakavac

First faunistic record for Croatia: Pungur 1899

Distribution in Croatia: Nominal subspecies only. Confirmed in a few localities in the Pannonian region (Đurđevački peski). Older records from the coastal area (e.g. Baccetti & Capra 1988, Sombke & Schlegel 2007) should be revised in the future.

Also reported as: A. patruelis (see comments under A. patruelis (Herrich-Schäffer, 1838)) , Acrotylus versicolor Burr, 1898 [partim?] ( Werner 1920)

Distribution in Europe: in the southern and central part of Europe and on the Canary Islands ( Hochkirch et al. 2016).

Identification and distribution note: Novak (1888) and Karny (1907) denied the presence of A. insubricus on the coast, regarding only A. patruelis to be present in the coastal area. The species is easily misidentified with A. patruelis if the identification is based only on alae coloration (used in most keys). Black band on the hind wings is highly variable and there are overlaps in coloration between the two species. On the other hand, arolium morphology is a reliable diagnostic character—it is slender and 1/3 as long as tarsal claws in A. insubricus , while robust and 1/2 as long as tarsal claws in A. patruelis . Furthermore, A. patruelis has slender hind femora, while they are robust in A. insubricus (a character helpful for discrimination, but not used in available keys). We confirmed the presence of both species in Croatia.