The Pneumoridae are a

family Family (from ) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). It forms the basis for social order. Ideally, families offer predictabili ...

of nocturnal short-horned

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 ...

s in the order

Orthoptera Orthoptera () is an order of insects that comprises the grasshoppers, locusts, and crickets, including closely related insects, such as the bush crickets or katydids and wētā. The order is subdivided into two suborders: Caelifera – gras ...

, commonly known as the bladder grasshoppers and the sole representative of the superfamily Pneumoroidea. Their

centre of diversity A Vavilov center or center of origin is a geographical area where a group of organisms, either domesticated or wild, first developed its distinctive properties. Centers of origin were first identified in 1924 by Nikolai Vavilov. Vavilov posit ...

is in

southern Africa Southern Africa is the southernmost region of Africa. No definition is agreed upon, but some groupings include the United Nations geoscheme for Africa, United Nations geoscheme, the intergovernmental Southern African Development Community, and ...

, but one species occurs as far north as

South Sudan South Sudan (), officially the Republic of South Sudan, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered on the north by Sudan; on the east by Ethiopia; on the south by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Kenya; and on the ...

. Most adult males acquire an inflated abdomen, a specialization for amplified sound production, which is likely its primary function. Most genera display striking

sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

, and several species exhibit a dual male

phenotype In genetics, the phenotype () is the set of observable characteristics or traits of an organism. The term covers the organism's morphology (physical form and structure), its developmental processes, its biochemical and physiological propert ...

Description

They are nocturnal, specialized herbivores which (with few exceptions) are endemic to coastal regions of

. The smallest species is '' Pneumoracris browni'' occurring in the

Succulent Karoo The Succulent Karoo is an terrestrial ecoregion, ecoregion defined by the World Wide Fund for Nature to include regions of deserts and xeric shrublands, desert in South Africa and Namibia, and a biodiversity hotspot. The geographic area chosen ...

ecoregion, while the largest is the wide-ranging

Afromontane The Afromontane regions are subregions of the Afrotropical realm, one of the Earth's eight biogeographic realms, covering the plant and animal species found in the mountains of Africa and the southern Arabian Peninsula. The Afromontane regions o ...

forest species, '' Physophorina livingstoni''.

Sexual dimorphism

The body length of adult males vary from 11.5 to 68.0 mm, and that of females from 22.0 to 107 mm. Males of a particular species may or may not have an inflated body with fully developed wings, or both morphs may be present. Males have large ocelli, a prominently crested pronotum, and are smaller in size. Females' bodies are larger and not inflated, and possess only reduced elytra and wings. Female ocelli are vestigial and the pronotum is more tectiform, while the sound-producing mechanism is entirely different.

Males

Adult males of most species acquire an inflated, bladder-like abdomen at the final molt. Their abdominal segments consist of a thin, semitransparent integument, and are enlarged in length and width, while the intersegmental membranes are much reduced. Males are capable of producing loud calls, a long and very deep rasping noise, which members of their species can detect from 2 km away. Males call by stridulating the rasp on the inner surface of their rather weak hind femur against an opposing rasp on the third tergite of the inflated, hollow abdomen. These sclerotized abdominal ridges form a crescent-like row, and their exact number has some value in distinguishing between taxa. In species without an inflated body, these characters are only vestigial. The wings of males have a primitive morphology, and are not suited to producing sound. Their wing venation is in fact the simplest of all the Acridoidea.

Females

Females reply by duetting. They employ a different sound mechanism to produce a distinguishable call, sometimes described as a high squeak, and perhaps only partially audible to humans. This is perhaps produced by rubbing strong wing veinlets armed with strong teeth against the abdomen, which is facilitated or accompanied by raising the pronotum at a high angle.

Ecology

Within one species, a primary (plesiomorph) and alternative (apomorph) male form with differing mating strategies can arise. Details of these morphs were the basis for the description of two subfamilies, namely Pneumorinae (Dirsh 1975) and Parabullacrinae (Dirsh 1975). Three groups are distinguishable on the basis of their ecology, namely a forest, marginal, and desert group, of which the forest species are the most primitive.

Genera and species

List of genera and species: Genus '' Bullacris'' Roberts, 1941 * '' B. boschimana'' (Péringuey) :Range:

Northern Cape The Northern Cape ( ; ; ) is the largest and most sparsely populated Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa. It was created in 1994 when the Cape Province was split up. Its capital is Kimberley, South Africa, Kimberley. It includes ...

* '' B. discolor'' (Thunberg) :Range:

Western Cape The Western Cape ( ; , ) is a provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa, situated on the south-western coast of the country. It is the List of South African provinces by area, fourth largest of the nine provinces with an area of , an ...

and

Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape ( ; ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. Its capital is Bhisho, and its largest city is Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth). Due to its climate and nineteenth-century towns, it is a common location for tourists. It is also kno ...

, Habitat: Fynbos :Phenotype: Inflated and uninflated males * '' B. intermedia'' (Péringuey) :Range: Eastern Cape and

KwaZulu-Natal KwaZulu-Natal (, also referred to as KZN) is a Provinces of South Africa, province of South Africa that was created in 1994 when the government merged the Zulu people, Zulu bantustan of KwaZulu ("Place of the Zulu" in Zulu language, Zulu) and ...

* '' B. membracoides'' (Walker) :Range: Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and

Malawi Malawi, officially the Republic of Malawi, is a landlocked country in Southeastern Africa. It is bordered by Zambia to the west, Tanzania to the north and northeast, and Mozambique to the east, south, and southwest. Malawi spans over and ...

, Habitat: Savanna :Phenotype: Inflated and uninflated males * '' B. obliqua'' (Thunberg) :Range: Western Cape, Habitat: Fynbos :Phenotype: Inflated and uninflated males * '' B. serrata'' (Thunberg) :Range: Western Cape and Eastern Cape * '' B. unicolor'' (Linnaeus) :Range: Cape provinces, Habitat: Succulent Karoo :Phenotype: Only inflated males Genus '' Parabullacris'' Dirsh, 1963 * '' P. vansoni'' Disrch :Range: Northern Cape, Habitat: Succulent Karoo :Phenotype: Only uninflated males Genus '' Physemacris'' Roberts, 1941 * '' P. papilosus'' (Fabricius) :Range: Western Cape * '' P. variolosus'' (Linnaeus) :Range: Western Cape, Habitat: Fynbos :Phenotype: Only inflated males Genus '' Paraphysemacris'' Dirsh, 1963 * '' P. spinosus'' Dirsh :Range: Cape provinces, Habitat: Fynbos :Phenotype: Only uninflated males Genus '' Peringueyiacris'' Dirsh, 1965 * '' P. namaqua'' (Péringuey) :Range: Northern Cape, Habitat: Succulent Karoo :Phenotype: Only inflated males Genus '' Pneumoracris'' Dirsh, 1963 * '' P. browni'' Dirsh :Range: Northern Cape, Habitat: Succulent Karoo :Phenotype: Only uninflated males Genus '' Prostallia'' Bolivar, 1906 * '' P. granulata'' (Stål) :Range: KwaZulu-Natal and

Mpumalanga Mpumalanga () is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name means "East", or literally "The Place Where the Sun Rises" in the Nguni languages. Mpumalanga lies in eastern South Africa, bordering Eswatini and Mozambique. It shares bor ...

Genus '' Physophorina'' Westwood, 1874 * '' P. livingstoni'' Westwood :Range: South Africa,

Mozambique Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique, is a country located in Southeast Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west, and Eswatini and South Afr ...

Tanzania Tanzania, officially the United Republic of Tanzania, is a country in East Africa within the African Great Lakes region. It is bordered by Uganda to the northwest; Kenya to the northeast; the Indian Ocean to the east; Mozambique and Malawi to t ...

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

and

, Habitat: Forest :Phenotype: Only inflated males * '' P. miranda'' (Péringuey) :Range: South Africa and

, Habitat: Forest :Phenotype: Only inflated males Genus '' Pneumora'' Thunberg, 1775 * '' P. inanis'' (Fabricius) :Range: South Africa and Tanzania, Habitat: Forest :Phenotype: Only inflated males

References

External links

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q3392860 Orthoptera families Taxa named by Émile Blanchard Grasshoppers