Melanoplus punctulatus (Uhler) occurs only in the USA and Canada, where its current known distribution extends west only to the eastern quarter of the Great Plains States. In 2014, we discovered two new populations of M. punctulatus in the Pine Ridge area of western Nebraska. This discovery extends the known range of this species westward by over 600 km. The species appears to be strongly associated with green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) in the western part of its range. Our results suggest that M. punctulatus may have been previously overlooked, due to its behavior and crypsis, and may actually occur across much of the Great Plains in woodland areas.

Phaneropterinae is the largest subfamily within the bush-crickets/ katydids (Tettigonioidea), with about 2451 species, and with a world-wide distribution. Its acoustic communication differs from all other tettigonioid groups in that females primarily and typically respond to the male calling song with their own acoustic reply, a behaviour referred to as duetting. This type of response seems to have been lost only in a few species with wingless females.

According to our literature review, information about the song patterns of about 330 species of Phaneropterinae have been published world-wide. Included in this number are ca 170 species of Barbitistini, a flightless West Palearctic tribe, which are treated separately. In the present study we summarize information from the above 330 species. We examine the morphology of stridulatory and hearing organs, and analyze the acoustic signals for frequency, number of syllables and number of interval types. We also have examined if and how responding by sound may have influenced other aspects of the acoustic communication system, especially the structure of the male calling song.

Overall, the songs of male Phaneropterinae are similar to those of other tettigonioids. However, some Phaneropterinae species with very long and complex songs are found on all continents, exceeding in these characters nearly all other Ensifera species. These songs contain several different types of syllables and intervals of various duration. Because of this high interspecific variability (reaching from very simple to extremely complex), male phaneropterine songs are by far more variable than those of other tettigonioid families.

However, since there are so few data on the behaviour of most Phaneropterinae species, and especially for females, we still are limited in our understanding of the reasons behind the song variability. Sexual selection by females choosing to respond preferentially to certain song types could be an important evolutionary force, but probably only in combination with some unknown ecological and behavioural factors.

Members of the family Phaneropteridae are well known for their acoustical duetting behaviour, used for locating and meeting a mate. In Poecilimon affinis, typically the male approaches a responding female phonotactically. A set of behavioural experiments, bioacoustic and neurophysiological measurements (some with a relatively low sample size, but not repeatable under the same circumstances) indicates the following system: the male song (92 dB SPL_peak at a distance of 1 m) is about 10 dB louder than the female song. The females respond to male signals only if these are ∼15–20 dB above their hearing threshold. The males start a phonotactic approach towards a stationary, responding female only if she is no more than ∼12 m away. Females, on the other hand, may respond to singing males up to a distance of 28m, and to more distant males with softer signals than to closer ones. A possible function of these weak signals, inaudible for the duetting male, may be to attract eavesdropping males. The communication system will work at densities as low as 0.003 females or 0.0005 males per m².

The sparse descriptions of the stick insect (Phasmatodea) digestive system as reported/provided in the literature are highly contradictory. This paper describes the digestive systems of several families of Phasmatodea (Timematidae, Heteropterygidae, Diapheromeridae, Pseudophasmatidae, and Phasmatidae) plus the gut microbiome of these and one other (Phylliidae) to both verify past findings and provide a general description of the Phasmatodea alimentary canal. The constrictions imposed by this anatomy on phasmid gut microbiology, its connections to recently released Phasmatodea transcriptomes, and how it differs from the anatomy of related orders in the Polyneoptera are discussed.

All Phasmatodea have ridged proventriculi lined or covered with small spines. Anterior projections of the midgut, sometimes described as gastric caeca, are only found in Euphasmatodea and often obscure the proventriculus. We define the cardia as the complex of foregut and midgut tissue where the type II peritrophic matrix is produced. Appendices of the midgut are an autapomorphy for Phasmatodea, but Timema have fewer and larger appendices relative to body size. We suggest caeca-like projections and the loss of large, proventricular teeth are apomorphies of Euphasmatodea. We identify a possible facultative symbiosis in Eucalyptus-feeding species that requires further study.

Top-down control by spider predators on grasshopper herbivores can produce trophic cascades, which may enhance plant biomass and alter plant community composition. These trophic level effects may be the result of either predator reduction in prey numbers (i.e., consumptive effects) or decreased prey foraging time in response to predator presence (i.e., non-consumptive effects). However, predator-prey interactions can be context dependent and do not always affect the plant trophic level. We conducted a field and laboratory experiment in a Northern Wisconsin (USA) old field ecosystem to uncover whether consumptive or non-consumptive effects of spider predation on grasshopper herbivores result in a trophic cascade, and if so to determine the underlying mechanisms that drive these trophic cascades. In a field experiment, four treatments examined the effects of multiple trophic-level interactions on plant biomass: 1) control treatment of vegetation only, 2) a two trophic-level interaction (grasshoppers and vegetation), and two different three trophic-level interactions: 3) the presence of “predator spiders” to examine consumptive effects, and 4) “risk spiders” with their chelicerae disarmed with beeswax to examine non-consumptive effects. In addition, a lab experiment was conducted to examine behavioral responses by grasshoppers in the presence of both an armed-spider predator and a risk spider to assess whether food quality (high vs low C:N ratios) had an effect on this interaction. Both risk and predator spiders decreased the impact of grasshoppers on plant biomass in the field experiment, and equally reduced overall grasshopper survival, indicating a non-consumptive effect. At the behavioral level, grasshoppers exhibited anti-predator behavior at the expense of reduced food intake. Food quality had no effect on the survival of grasshoppers as foraging was sacrificed for predator avoidance. Taken together, our results indicate that the resulting trophic cascade was the result of non-consumptive effects and that spider presence alone may reduce grasshopper herbivory rates.