#ephippiger

Saddle-backed Bush Cricket (Ephippiger ephippiger), female, family Tettigoniidae, France

In the U.S., we refer to Bush Crickets as Katydids.

@philoursmars submitted: Une énorme et superbe ephippigère, en Auvergne

Philoursmars

Saddle-backed Bush Cricket (Ephippiger ephippiger), family Tettigoniidae, Bulgaria

In the U.S., we refer to Bush Crickets as Katydids.

Saddle-Backed Bush Cricket, probably Ephippiger ephippiger cunii, male .

I came across this magnificent insect walking along a path through some pine woodland, with an under-story of heather and gorse, in Galicia, NW Spain. It is The Saddle-backed Bush-cricket. I was very excited to see one; it is absent from Britain and I had never seen one before. The closest relative we have in England, is…

European Saddleback Bushcricket  - Ephippiger ephippiger 

What you see in these photos are a male (top) and a female (bottom) of  Ephippiger ephippiger (Orthoptera - Tettigoniidae), a katydid species native to Europe and parts of Asia.

Like other bushcrickets this species is characterized by extremely long antennae, a pronotum resembling a saddle, thick abdomen and vestigial wings. Females have a highly developed ovipositor, the organ used for oviposition (as seen in the bottom picture).

In this species the mating behavior includes the so called nuptial gifts or nuptial feeding, in which males secrete from their accessory glands a gelatinous mass that does not contain sperm called a “spermatophylax”, attached to the spermatophore that contains the sperm. At the end of copulation, females consume the spermatophylax who then go on to eat the remainder of the spermatophore. 

References: [1] - [2]