It’s time for a new BitB Challenge Session, and to begin the 6th edition we start off with a Super Crop Challenge. This is a combination challenge, with points on tap for naming the organism (order, family, genus) and visible structures. As always, standard challenge rules apply, including moderated comments, tie-breaker points for first correct answers, and possible bonus pts for additional relevant information at my discretion. Mr. Phidippus ran away with BitB Challenge Session #5, but Tim Eisele and Dennis Haines fought to the end for podium honors. Will one of them de-throne Mr. Phidippus, or will somebody else make a surprise run? Or, perhaps, 3-time champ Ben Coulter will return to stake his claim as the true BitB Challenge Session champion. Let’s get started!
Copyright © Ted C. MacRae 2012
Beetles In The Bush 
Order: Orthoptera
Superfamily: Eumastacoidea
Family: Proscopiidae
Genus: Tetanorhynchus
Species: probably T. calamus (Burmeister, 1880)
This crop is an anterior view of part of the head capsule and shows the two compound eyes, the proximal part of the antennae (scape, pedicel and the first four flagellomeres), the two carinulate branches of the frontal costa and the fastigium.
A clean win, but if anybody was setup for the win it was you. 2 pts each for order, family and genus, plus 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons (which you refer to as the “fastigium” and thus earn a bonus point), and lastly 7 bonus pts for the number of people you beat with the proscopiid ID.
Total = 17 pts
Indeed, I definitely had a distinct advantage with this one! :^)
Cool! This is a jumping stick, isn’t it? So…
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Proscopiidae
I haven’t found a good key to genera (16 or so in South America), so I’ll leave that to someone else. Structures visible…compound eyes, antennae and some sort of head extension (ah, I see it goes by the name fastigium). Interesting beast.
Yes, a jumping stick! 2 pts each for order and family, 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons (plus a bonus pt for “fastigium”), and 6 early-bird ID pts.
Total = 14 pts
Humm, those are funky striped eyes, antennae that branch off to the sides with a conical head – probably a Proscopiidae, or Jumping Stick! I recall a Myrmecos challenge like this where you answered the genus Apioscelis, so I’ll just say it’s the same one.
Order=Orthoptera, Family= Proscopiidae, Genus= Apioscelis.
2 pts for order and family, but Apioscelis does not extend as far south as Argentina. Also 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and “conical head” (close enough to frons), as well as 5 early-bird bonus pts.
Total = 12 pts
Seems like wordpress.com has changed the way you log in for comments… so it associates my old site. Know how to get around that? (Using this different email might be the answer)
Yes – email is the key!
What you have pictured is the top of the face of a Jumping Stick (Orthoptera: Proscopiidae). Structures pictures include: eyes, frons, antennal attachment, scape and antennomere. The structure behind the antennae is more of the elongated head. I’m going to guess that the species is Anchocoema argentina, but that’s is just a guess. I wasn’t able to find out much other than some genera require looking at the genitalia to make a determination.
Very good Dennis. 2 pts each for order and family, and 1 pt for the genus (which does occur – obviously – in Argentina, though in the south). Also 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons and 4 early-bird bonus pts.
Total = 12 pts
Most of the literature I ran across said that Jumping Sticks are common in Argentina. I figured how lucky could Ted be to go out and find something new? With little else to go on I went with one that (based on the name) would be certain to be in Argentina, and hopefully common enough for you to run into. Little did I imagine that you would be lucky enough to find something “new”! LOL Congratulations!
Glad to know somebody used the “Argentina” hint to their advantage – made the difference in reaching the podium!
This has to be a walking stick from the order Phasmatodea. Shown in the photo crop are the eyse, antenna and forelegs folded in front in a classic walking stick pose. The genus is beyond my level of expertise.
Hi Dan – this thing is a dead ringer for a stick insect but actually belongs to a different order. You did correctly identify the eyes and antennae, but that is the elongated head extending upward rather than the forelegs.
Total = 2 pts
It is one of these orthoptera that are very slender. I’d say it is a conehead katydid, this is a frontal view and these are the eyes, the base of the antenna, and a few segments of the antenna.
2 pts for the correct order, but a different family. Also 1 pt each for eyes and antennae, and I’ll count “frontal view” for frons.
Total = 5 pts
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Acridinae
Genus: Acrida
Here we can see the eyes, antennae, vertex, and some of the frons.
Hi Roy – correct order, and actually acridids are rather closely related to this family of insects. 1 pt each also for eyes, antennae, and frons (vertex not visible).
Total = 5 pts
I’m going with horsehead grasshopper, genus Pseudoproscopia (order Odonata, family Proscopiidae). Looks like the eyes, antennae, and portion of the extended top of its head.
2 pts each for order and family, but Pseudoproscopia doesn’t extend as far south as Argentina. 1 pt each for eyes and antennae, but that is the frons (or fastigium) above the antennae rather than the top (= vertex) of its head. Also 3 early-bird bonus pts for Proscopiidae.
Total = 9 pts
This is certainly part of the head of a very elongated insect – visible structures are the two eyes (with stripes), the antennae, and if I have the orientation right the portion going upward is a very elongated vertex, with the frons between the eyes and the mouthparts off the screen to the bottom.
Searching on “argentinian stick insect” turned up a post on “What’s that bug?” about “Jumping Sticks”, which sure looks like the right family: order Orthoptera, family Proscopiidae (and which turn out to be a type of grasshopper, and not a true stick insect at all. And I see that Alex used one with a less-elongated occiput as a Monday Night Mystery about a year ago, which is why this looked kind of familiar. And that you identified it).
Practically all the pictures I’m finding so far seem to be content to identify only as far as the family, so I’ll have to get back to you on the genus and species.
Hi Tim – 2 pts for order and family (and you should have at least guessed a genus – wrong doesn’t cost points!). Also 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons and 2 early-bird bonus pts for Proscopiidae.
Total = 9 pts
Hi Ted,
I’m a bit late to the game on this one, but it looks to me like:
Order: Orthoptera
Family: Acrididae
Subfamily: Leptysminae
Tribe: Leptysmini
Genus: Cylindrotettix (maybe….?)
This is a ventral head view with the striped objects on the side of the head being the eyes, the antennae are in between these and anterior on the head (up in the picture), and the long extension between the eyes is called the fastigium.
Can’t wait to see more pictures!
Not late at all. 2 pts for the order, but a different family. You are correct that it is a ventral view of the head, so 1 pt each for eyes and antennae and 2 pts for properly referring to the fastigium.
Total = 6 pts
This one took me a while to figure out, but I think I finally got it. It looks like a “jumping stick” grasshopper in the genus Cephalocoema(Order–Orthoptera, Family–Proscopiidae). I was able to find several photos of what looked like the same grasshopper, but none of them had been identified past genus.
For the visible structures, I’ll start out with the obvious and say compound eyes and antennae. It also looks like the frons and frontal sutures are visible, along with part of the vertex.
You got it – 2 pts for order and family, and 1 pt for the genus, which does occur in Argentina. 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons, and also a bonus early-bird pt.
Total = 9 pts
Hm. Still having trouble finding pictures that identify even as far as genus, and the keys I’m finding (mostly by Alba Bentos-Pereira) look to focus more on the genitalia than on the head, which obviously doesn’t help me much. It does look like the very elongated head tags it as a female, though.
Google image search did come up with a lot of pictures of similarly-colored-and-shaped naked people, for whatever that’s worth.
Oh, for crying out loud. If I narrow the Image Search down just to Proscopiidae, I actually find a number of pictures that look like the identical insect species, including the striped eyes, like this one, but *nobody is identifying them beyond the family!* Gah.
Oh well. Maybe some other way of searching on it will occur to me later.
Two pieces of advice: 1) guess the genus, and 2) use Orthopteran Species File Online 🙂
It is a portion of the face (frons, gena, vertex, base of antennae and eyes) of an orthopteran insect. Let’s go with false stick insect Orthoptera:Eumastacoidea:Proscopiidae:Hybusinae:Hybusa coniceps (Blanchard, 1851). Just a guess on tribe and below.
Mike B
Hi Mike – 2 pts for order and family, but Hybusa is limited to Chile and (as far as I can tell) does not occur in Argentina. Also 1 pt each for eyes, antennae and frons, but the vertex is not visible.
Total = 7 pts
For those of you that signed up for email or RSS feed on the comments to this post, pull up a chair and enjoy the show. The critter is in the orthopteran family Proscopiidae (jumping sticks, or “bicho palito”), and shown are the eyes, antennal bases, and lower frons—in this case referred to as a “fastigium” (worth extra pts). I realize guessing the genus is a long shot based on this photo, but I put “Argentina” in the tags as a clue. Accordingly, I’ll give two points for the correct genus but also 1 point for a genus that occurs in Argentina. In this case, Orthopteran Species File Online would have been the ideal resource to narrow down the choices.
And now, on with the show…