The GSG Newshopper

The GSG Newshopper
Newsletter of the IUCN SSC Grasshopper Specialist Group
August 2014
Red List status of South African Katydids
Threatened Orthoptera on the Seychelles
The rescue of the Lord Howe Island Stick Insect
GSG Newshopper - August 2014
New Orthoptera-app and wiki-website
Florin Rutschmann, Matthias Riesen & Christian Roesti
In May 2014, the Orthoptera identification app was published on the
iTunes Store and the Orthoptera-wiki went online on the platform
Orthoptera.ch. Both, the app and the wiki contain all 119 taxa of
Switzerland and Germany. The comprehensive species portraits
include several sections: morphological descriptions, songs, spatial distribution, phenology and life history,
habitat, endangerment and list similar species. More than 3,700 photos, songs and drawings are added to the
species portraits illustrating the variability, the behavior or the nymph stage.
The main component of the app is a simple and intuitive multi-criteria determination key allowing the
combination of several characteristics and omitting any strict sequence as it is common in dichotomous keys.
Besides morphological traits the list of potential species can be reduced by the integration of location data
using the built-in GPS of the smart phone. Already the selection of three or four criteria leads to a significant
reduction in the number of the potential species, which can be further reduced by comparing the songs.
The main target audience of the determination module are interested laymen. Accordingly we tried to keep
the multi-criteria key as simple and clear as possible. So, only few details on ovipositor or cercus are included,
which should still be identifiable without any additives. Consequently, it might be possible that not every
species can be classified directly. Nonetheless, when facing a more challenging determination one can still
compare songs and pictures in the detail gallery to narrow it further down. Moreover, the app can be used to
record observations directly in the field, which can later be sent to the database of
Observation.org or Webfauna.ch. There, all observations can be edited and
downloaded.
At the moment the app is only available on iOS systems with a
planned release of an Android version later this year.
Furthermore, all the species portraits are freely accessible
on Orthoptera.ch.
Species texts exist only in German. However the
determination key is available in English, French and
Italian. Together with the usage of primarily scientific
names this allows for navigation and access to pictures, songs and
drawings predominantly independent of German language knowledge.
First experiences showed that an iPad mini is the optimal device for the field, being the perfect tradeoff
between size and convenience.
http://www.orthoptera.ch/arten
http://www.orthoptera.ch/info-app-wiki/orthoptera-app
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GSG Newshopper - August 2014
A selection of screenshots from the
Orthoptera-app
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