User:JonRichfield/Saginae

European predatory katydid
Mature Saga pedo
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Orthoptera
Family:	Tettigoniidae
Subfamily:	Saginae
Genus:	Saga
Species:	Saga pedo
Binomial name
Saga pedo (Pallas, 1771)

Saginae The Saginae are the Predatory Katydids or Predatory Bush-crickets, a Subfamily of the Family Tettigoniidae (the Katydids, long-horned grasshoppers or bush-crickets). They are unusual among Orthopteran subfamilies, in that effectively they are specialist carnivores. In this respect they have been regarded as unique, but some members of two other subfamilies, the Austrosaginae and Listroscelidinae at one time were included in the Saginae, and some members of those subfamilies are partly or completely predatory.

Overview

Members of the Saginae are slender and elongated in build compared to say, locusts or crickets, but their four anterior walking legs, as opposed to their posterior leaping legs, are powerful and lined with spines, mainly on their inner edges. They use those spines in clasping their prey. Some species have spines on the outer surfaces and on the leaping legs as well; those spines are probably defensive in function. Their jaws are not spectacular, but are large, powerful, sharp, and businesslike, as befits predators, and they do not hesitate to bite when handled. The Saginae are large insects, some species over 50 mm, not counting the antennae or ovipositor, which are long, typically about body length.

Saga pedo about to oviposit an egg in the soil.

External links

• example.com