Modicogryllus frontalis (Fieber, 1844)

Holuša, Jaroslav, Kočárek, Petr, Vlk, Robert & Marhoul, Pavel, 2013, Annotated checklist of the grasshoppers and crickets (Orthoptera) of the Czech Republic, Zootaxa 3616 (5), pp. 437-460 : 444-445

Modicogryllus frontalis (Fieber, 1844)

Material examined. Moravia mer., Modřice, clay-pit, 13.vi.1992, 2 M, 2 F, Vlk leg., det. et coll.; Hodonín—Pánov, clay-pit, 12.vi.2008, 1 M, 1 F, Vlk leg., det. et coll.; Hevlín, clay-pit, 2.viii.2008, 19.viii.2009, 11.ix.2009, 12.viii.2011; Mikulov—Mušlov, sand-pit, 6.vi.2009, 20.viii.2009; Novosedly, clay-pit, 11.ix.2009, all R. Vlk observ.

M. frontalis is distributed from France through southern Europe and the southern part of Central Europe to western Asia. In southeastern Europe, it occurs in Bosnia and Serbia (Kočárek et al. 2005). It has been known in southern Moravia since the beginning of 20th century: Pisárky, Černovice (Czižek 1905), Hády (Czižek 1915), Pavlovské vrchy, Lednice, Čejč (Dobšík 1948), Pouzdřanská step (Čejchan 1959). It is currently detected in many localities in Moravia (as noted earlier in this report). From Bohemia, it has been known for a long time from the České středohoří hills, the environs of Prague, Karlštejn (Fieber 1853), and Libšice (Krejčí 1896). However Haury & Nickerl (1905) did not mention this species, and Obenberger (1926) only repeated data from Fieber (1853) and Krejčí (1896).

In the 1980s, many new localities were reported (Čejchan 1981) (Nová Huť u Nižboru, Radotín, Podhoří, Závist u Zbraslavi, Kralupy nad Vltavou, Terezín), and the occurrence in the České středohoří hills was confirmed (Milá, Lovoš). However, we have no reports about the species from Bohemia since those times. Its occurrence was obviously polydisjuntive, and the species inhabited extremely warm slopes. Honců (1993) did not find it on Lovoš and Milá hills. Since 1990s, it has been unsuccesfully searched for at previously known localities. For those reasons, it is evaluated as missing in Bohemia.