This study examined two gregarious Orthoptera species (Calliptamus barbarus and Oedaleus decorus) as potential sources of chitin. The chitin content of the dry weight of C. barbarus was 20.5 ± 0.7%, and it was 16.5 ± 0.7% for O. decorus. Furthermore, the yield of chitosan (70 75% deacetylation degree) from the grasshopper species was found to be 74 ~ 76%, which is close to the yield of commercial preparations obtained from the unused parts of crabs and shrimp. The chitin and chitosan obtained in this way were analyzed using FTIR, TGA, XRD and SEM techniques, and the antimicrobial properties of chitosans obtained from C. barbarus and O. decorus against pathogenic microorganisms of humans and fish were investigated using the disc diffusion and microdilution broth methods. The antimicrobial screening procedures indicated that the chitosan showed significant antimicrobial activity against all of the tested pathogenic microorganisms. The MBC or MFC values were determined to be 0.16 ~ 2.50 mg/mL. The IC 50 values for the chitins obtained from C. barbarus and O. decorus were 10.68 ± 0.27 and 10.91 ± 0.96 mg/mL, respectively, which were greater than the value for butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT): 0.04 ± 0.01 mg/mL. These results suggest that these two species, which are currently considered to be pests because of over-breeding, are potentially alternative sources of chitin and chitosan, which are used in the food/feed industry for their antimicrobial and antioxidant properties.

In this study, we used Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), elemental analysis (EA), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), X-ray diffractometry (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to investigate chitin structure isolated from both sexes of four grasshopper species. FT-IR, EA, XRD, and TGA showed that the chitin was in the alpha form. With respect to gender, two main differences were observed. First, we observed that the quantity of chitin was greater in males than in females and the dry weight of chitin between species ranged from 4.71% to 11.84%. Second, using SEM, we observed that the male chitin surface structure contained 25 – 90nm wide nanofibers and 90 – 250 nm nanopores, while no pores or nanofibers were observed in the chitin surface structure of the majority of females (nanofibers were observed only in M. desertus females). In contrast, the elemental analysis, thermal properties, and crystalline index values for chitin were similar in males and females. Also, we carried out enzymatic digestion of the isolated chitins using commercial chitinase from Streptomyces griseus. We observed that there were no big differences in digestion rate of the chitins from both sexes and commercial chitin. The digestion rates were for grasshoppers’ chitins; 88.45–95.48% and for commercial chitin; 94.95%.

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Acoustic and morphological characters are very important to distinguish species of Cicadidae. In this study, the morphological and acoustic characters of Cicadatra platyptera Fieber, 1876 (Hemiptera, Cicadidae) collected from Turkey were analysed. The external morphological structures of two species were drawn and photographs of some specimens were taken. We evaluated taxonomically important morphological characters such as body shape, colors, patterns, structure, and genital structure. We evaluated measurements of external morphological structures and acoustics characters of Cicadatra platyptera from Turkey, partly with statistical analyses. Morphological characters were compared and differentiated from the closely related species, Cicadatra atra. The distribution in Turkey including previous records and the material examined were shown on a map, and the distribution in Palearctic Region was given.

Due to the increasing interest in natural biopolymers including chitin, the exploitation of economic and easily accessible chitin sources with good physicochemical properties is nowadays required. In view of this fact, in the current study chitin was extracted and physicochemically characterized from six Cicadas (Hemiptera: Homoptera: Cicadoidea) species collected from Mediterranean region of Turkey (2014–15). Chitin was extracted using a classic extraction method that includes acid and base treatment. TGA results revealed a remarkable increase (410–412°C) for all the six Cicada species compared to other chitin samples extracted from various sources. For all of the six selected species the chitin contents on the dry basis were determined as 6.7% for Cicadatra atra, 5.51% for C. hyalina, 8.84% for C. platyptera, 4.97% for Cicada lodosi, 6.49% for C. mordoganensis, and 5.88% for Cicadetta tibialis. The surface morphology of chitin isolates from Cicada species was observed to consist of nanofibers and nanopores.

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Myrmeleotettix Bolivar, 1914 (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Gomphocerinae) is a genus represented by nine species in the whole Palaearctic. It is poorly known in Anatolia except some records of M. maculatus. As for the other glacial refugia, cold preferring members of this genus are discontinuously distributed on high altitudes in Anatolia. Additionally, morphology is not sufficiently useful in taxonomy of gomphocerinae members for those producing a complicate courtship song. Thus an accurate taxonomy requires extensive materials and different character sources. In this study, the taxonomy of Anatolian Myrmeleotettix is reexamined on the basis of qualitative and morphometric morphology, and male calling and courtship songs. Song and morphology both suggest the existence of two species in Anatolia. The first is M. maculatus (Thunberg) which is distributed along the northern one-third of Anatolia in addition to other parts of West Palaearctic. The second is a new species, Myrmeleotettix ethicus sp. n. possibly endemic to the southwest corner of Anatolia. The new species can be easily distinguished from the most similar species M. maculatus by morphology as well as by song characters. The conclusions are: (i) similarities in courtship and calling songs of these two species may indicate that they are sister species (ii) from habitat preference and distribution patterns it can be inferred that they diverged following a cold period and the new species is a remnant of ancestral population in southern Taurus, and (iii) the new species is a range restricted, vulnerable species as is the case for many other taxa present in the Mediterranean Taurus biodiversity hotspot.

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