Erechthis gundlachi Bolívar, 1888 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae: Agraeciini) Preying on a Mollusk in the Dominican Republic

The Predator Becomes the Prey: The Katydid Erechthis Gundlachi Bolívar, 1888 (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) Feeding Upon the Cuban Lizard Anolis Homolechis (Cope, 1864) (Squamata: Dactyloidae), With Some Notes on Hispaniolan Erechthis Bolívar, 1888

“…The situation discussed above turns necessary to confirm the actual identity of the Hispaniolan records of E. gundlachi given by Perez-Gelabert (2014), as well as the natural preys recorded for it by Perez-Gelabert (2014) and Perez-Gelabert & Yong (2017), because different species are most likely involved. A thorough revision of the genus Erechthis is being conducted by the present author (S. Yong, in preparation), which shall clarify most of these questions.…”

“…The dietary habits of Conocephalinae are quite variable, nevertheless they prefer food protein: flowers, pollen, seeds, grasses, dead wood, and smaller insects such as butterflies, other katydids, beetles, stick insects and their eggs, embryos, and egg clutches of frogs and land snail, it is widely documented under natural conditions (Rentz, 1976;Hayes & Rentz, 1986;Naskrecki, 2000;Gwynne, 2001;Montealegre-Z. & Morris, 2003;Leong, 2011;Ingrisch & Tan, 2012;Perez-Gelabert, 2014;Chamorro-Rengifo & Braun, 2016;Perez-Gelabert & Yong, 2017;S. Yong, unpublished).…”

“…Yong, unpublished). Specifically, E. gundlachi has been so far recorded in natural conditions feeding on terrestrial snail, caterpillar, small insects, Phyllophaga beetles (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) and stick insects (Perez-Gelabert, 2014;Perez-Gelabert & Yong, 2017).…”

“…It is worth to mention here that Erechthis Bolívar, 1888 was regarded as monotypic until 2016. Its single species E. gundlachi was formerly known only from Cuba (Bolívar, 1888;Redtenbacher, 1891;Yong, 2015;Perez-Gelabert & Yong, 2017) and Hispaniola (Perez-Gelabert, 2014), but there is also a very old unconfirmed record from Puerto Rico (Redtenbacher, 1891), which still needs clarification. Currently this genus includes three nominal species, after the recent additions of De Luca & Morris (2016), who described E. levyi De Luca & Morris, 2016 (from Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas) and E. ayiti De Luca & Morris, 2016 (from Hispaniola).…”