Chirping Keyboard. Nisitrus vittatus Haan, Leaf-Eating Jungle Cricket on Koster's Curse, Nature Reserve, Forest Research Institute (FRIM), Kepong, Malaysia
The incessantly increasing chirping on the Rover Trail skirting the jungled hills of the Forest Reserve at the Forest Research Institute, Kepong, Malaysia, in my dream woke me. Jumping out of bed, I saw it was in fact my Laptop-keyboard, irreparable, happily die-chirping away. Must get a new one, and I sprang again under the covers.
This is a marvellous Banded Cricket. It was first fully identified by poor Wilhem de Haan (1801-1855) as Gryllus vittatus. De Haan was a famous and well-known Dutch entomologist. Specialising in insects and especially crustaceans, he was also highly interested in the precise distinction between animal and vegetative life. His great knowledge and pleasant, tenacious personality earned for him the position of first keeper of the museum now known as Naturalis in Leiden, The Netherlands. Here he could - among many other projects - devote himself to describing the collection of Japanese invertebrates brought to Holland by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796-1866), who'd first introduced western medicine to Japan.
De Haan's international reputation was enormous, as is demonstrated by the fact that at the first meeting of the newly established Royal Entomological Society of London (1833) he was named an honorary member. Too soon, however, - in 1842 - he was struck down by a terrible spinal disorder making it impossible for him to walk and leading to his untimely death.
Ironically, it was also in 1842 that De Haan published his description of Gryllus vittatus, that utterly mobile, jumpy Forest Cricket. If I am right, it was renamed Nisitrus by the Swiss entomologist Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (1829-1905) in 1878. This photo shows our Jolly Jumper - incidentally, a cricket not used as a human food source as many of its family - on that invasive plant Clidemia hirta, Koster's Curse (see an earlier posting of mine). Maybe he'd have eaten it up if I hadn't scared him away. De Haan would have been delighted: he also famously wrote about the chewing techniques of insects...
Hard to photograph him - yes, indeed, it's a male. Couldn't get those long, long antennae in a sharp focus before Nisitrus jumped away... But still, he's beautiful; just look at those eyes, those thighs, the forearms, shoulders...
Chirping Keyboard. Nisitrus vittatus Haan, Leaf-Eating Jungle Cricket on Koster's Curse, Nature Reserve, Forest Research Institute (FRIM), Kepong, Malaysia
The incessantly increasing chirping on the Rover Trail skirting the jungled hills of the Forest Reserve at the Forest Research Institute, Kepong, Malaysia, in my dream woke me. Jumping out of bed, I saw it was in fact my Laptop-keyboard, irreparable, happily die-chirping away. Must get a new one, and I sprang again under the covers.
This is a marvellous Banded Cricket. It was first fully identified by poor Wilhem de Haan (1801-1855) as Gryllus vittatus. De Haan was a famous and well-known Dutch entomologist. Specialising in insects and especially crustaceans, he was also highly interested in the precise distinction between animal and vegetative life. His great knowledge and pleasant, tenacious personality earned for him the position of first keeper of the museum now known as Naturalis in Leiden, The Netherlands. Here he could - among many other projects - devote himself to describing the collection of Japanese invertebrates brought to Holland by Philipp Franz Balthasar von Siebold (1796-1866), who'd first introduced western medicine to Japan.
De Haan's international reputation was enormous, as is demonstrated by the fact that at the first meeting of the newly established Royal Entomological Society of London (1833) he was named an honorary member. Too soon, however, - in 1842 - he was struck down by a terrible spinal disorder making it impossible for him to walk and leading to his untimely death.
Ironically, it was also in 1842 that De Haan published his description of Gryllus vittatus, that utterly mobile, jumpy Forest Cricket. If I am right, it was renamed Nisitrus by the Swiss entomologist Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure (1829-1905) in 1878. This photo shows our Jolly Jumper - incidentally, a cricket not used as a human food source as many of its family - on that invasive plant Clidemia hirta, Koster's Curse (see an earlier posting of mine). Maybe he'd have eaten it up if I hadn't scared him away. De Haan would have been delighted: he also famously wrote about the chewing techniques of insects...
Hard to photograph him - yes, indeed, it's a male. Couldn't get those long, long antennae in a sharp focus before Nisitrus jumped away... But still, he's beautiful; just look at those eyes, those thighs, the forearms, shoulders...