''Monachidium'' is a genus of

grasshopper Grasshoppers are a group of insects belonging to the suborder Caelifera. They are amongst what are possibly the most ancient living groups of chewing herbivorous insects, dating back to the early Triassic around 250 million years ago. Grassh ...

belonging to the family

Acrididae Acrididae are the predominant family of grasshoppers, comprising some 10,000 of the 11,000 species of the entire suborder Caelifera. The Acrididae are best known because all locusts (swarming grasshoppers) are of the Acrididae. The subfamily Oedi ...

, containing a single species, the fairly large and

aposematic Aposematism is the Advertising in biology, advertising by an animal, whether terrestrial or marine, to potential predation, predators that it is not worth attacking or eating. This unprofitability may consist of any defenses which make the pr ...

ally colored ''Monachidium lunum'' from tropical South America.Catalogue of life
/ref>Eades, D.C.; D. Otte; M.M. Cigliano & H. Braun
Orthoptera Species File.
/ref>

Description

''Monachidium lunum'' is native to the eastern and central

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology company * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek myth ...

Brazil Brazil, officially the Federative Republic of Brazil, is the largest country in South America. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by area, fifth-largest country by area and the List of countries and dependencies by population ...

and the

Guianas The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, are a geographical region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana, formerly British Guiana, British, Surinam (Dutch colo ...

. It is a fairly large species, typically around long. These grasshoppers have a bright and contrasting

color pattern. The

prothorax The prothorax is the foremost of the three segments in the thorax of an insect, and bears the first pair of legs. Its principal sclerites (exoskeletal plates) are the pronotum (dorsal), the prosternum ( ventral), and the propleuron (lateral) on ...

is bulbous and high. The head is black and the prothorax is orange or black. The

elytra An elytron (; ; : elytra, ) is a modified, hardened forewing of beetles (Coleoptera), though a few of the true bugs (Hemiptera) such as the family Schizopteridae are extremely similar; in true bugs, the forewings are called hemelytra (sometime ...

are blackish opaque, with transversal yellow bands. The wings are very dark blue, sometimes metallic violet. The abdomen is red and black. Antennae are yellow. Legs and tarsi are red.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q14643953, from2=Q10587933 Acrididae Acrididae genera Monotypic Orthoptera genera Orthoptera of South America Invertebrates of French Guiana Insects of Brazil Taxa named by Jean Guillaume Audinet-Serville