Notopleura pygmaea

Moussi, Abdelhamid, Abba, Abderrahmane, Harrat, Abboud & Petit, Daniel, 2014, Description of Dociostaurus biskrensis sp. nov. and male allotypes of four species: Pamphagulus bodenheimeri dumonti, P. uvarovi, Sphingonotus ebneri and Notopleura pygmaea (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) in the region of Biskra, Algeria, Zootaxa 3755 (4), pp. 379-390 : 389

Notopleura pygmaea

Allotype male 7/XI/09 Bir Naam, MNHN Paris. MNHN-EO-CAELIF999

Description. Sandy brown, spotted by dark dots and white tubercles regularly aligned.

The front head bears little elongated foveolae with clear edges. The pronotum has two white tubercles above and others distributed on the sides. The tegmina exceed the abdomen and are regularly adorned by white dots on the length. There are small white tubercules on the median nerve. The tibias are slightly bluish with 5 internal and 3 external spines, with an apical spine on the inner face. The internal spurs are longer than the external ones and reach the medium metatarsal. The wings are transparent. The hind femurs show two dark spots on the external side, but are clear inside.

Bio-Ecology. There are two generations a year, in spring and autumn with a stop of embryonic development in winter. This species leaves in scrublands of sandy steppe ( Moussi et al., 2011).

Following the analysis of three faeces, it appears the presence of only Dicotyledone remains, suggesting that this species could be forbivore. Of course this observation should be tested by further investigations.