Abstract
THREE species of cave locusts are found in New Zealand, belonging to three different genera. (1) Pachyrhamma speluncœ is allied to Gymnoplectron longipes, which lives among the branches of trees, both genera being known only from the north island. (2) Pleioplectron edwardsii inhabits caves in the south island, and has close allies, belonging to the same genus, living amongst old wood in both islands. (3) Macropathus filifer is allied to Pharmacus montanus, which lives in the open among rocks, both genera being from the south island. Macropathus and Pleioplectron may have originated from a common ancestor in New Zealand, but Pachyrhamma belongs to another section, and is more nearly related to European and American species than to the other cave locusts of New Zealand. These three genera belong to that group of the Stenopelmatidœ—distinguished by having no pads on the tarsi—to which all the cave locusts of North America, Europe, and Burma belong; the habit of living in caves appearing to be an instinct found only in that group among the whole of the Locustodea.
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HUTTON, F. A Case of Inherited Instinct. Nature 58, 411 (1898). https://doi.org/10.1038/058411b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/058411b0
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