Recent Range Expansion into Connecticut by Orocharis saltator (Orthoptera: Gryllidae)

Orocharis saltator Uhler has expanded its distributional range northward during the last 5 decades. In an early account, Blatchley (1920, Pp. 742–743, Orthoptera of Northeastern America with Especial Reference to the Faunas of Indiana and Florida, The Nature Publishing Co., Indianapolis, IN) reported New Jersey as the northern range limit along the eastern seaboard. Walker (1969, Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 62: 752–762) published the first detailed range map, showing that O. saltator reached its northern limit in central New Jersey and central Ohio. Subsequently, Capinera et al. (2004, P. 204, Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States, Cornell Univ. Press, Ithaca, NY) showed that its range had moved slightly more northward. Recently, Walker (2016, Jumping Bush Cricket, Orocharis saltator. Accessed 21 December 2016. http://www.entnemdept.ufl.edu/walker/buzz/686m.htm.) produced an updated range map, showing additional northward expansion in midwestern states and in eastern coastal states. The two northernmost records given by Walker (2016) were Ithaca, NY and Cambridge, MA; both locations are at about 42.4° north latitude. In this paper, specimen-based records will be used to document the presence of O. saltator in Connecticut. Apparently, Himmelman (2009, Pp. 112–113, Guide to Night-singing Insects of the Northeast, Stackpole Books, Mechanicsburg, PA) first mentioned that this cricket had reached Connecticut, but he did not provide any precise distributional information. There are no specimens of O. saltator from Connecticut or Massachusetts in major insect collections in Connecticut or in the Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

Various aspects of the biology of O. saltator were discussed by Riley (1873, Pp. 119–120, In Fifth Annual Report of the Noxious, Beneficial, and Other Insects, of the State of Missouri, Regan and Carter, Jefferson City, MO), Blatchley (1920), Walker (1969), and others. Apparently, in the Northeast this nocturnal cricket reaches the adult stage in summer. The brown adults may be well camouflaged on bark where they often rest and call. This cricket has one generation per year, overwintering in the egg stage.

My new distributional records were acquired between 2006 and 2016 while I was conducting surveys that targeted non-orthopteran species. Most specimens of O. saltator were obtained by using Lindgren funnels (Phero Tech, Incorporated, Delta, BC) and cross-vane panel traps (Alpha Scents, Incorporated, West Linn, OR) to capture cerambycids, by beating live bushes of southern arrowwood, Viburnum dentatum L., to dislodge adults of the viburnum leaf beetle, Pyrrhalta viburni (Paykull), and by sweeping the samaras of tree of heaven, Ailanthus altissima (Miller) Swingle, to collect the brown marmorated stink bug, Halyomorpha halys (Stål). Lindgren and panel traps were baited with ethanol, other host volatiles, various cerambycid pheromones, or some combination of these. Traps were hung from a tree branch with the collection cup about 1.5 m above the ground. These two types of black traps mimic tree trunks, which may be daytime resting sites for this nocturnal cricket.

Orocharis saltator was found mainly in the lower one-half of Connecticut and in the central lowlands (or Connecticut Valley) in the upper part of the state (Fig. 1). The annual mean temperature is higher in the aforementioned areas of Connecticut than in the northeastern and northwestern regions of the state (Brumback 1965, St. Geol. Nat. Hist. Surv. Conn., Bull. 99). The cricket was collected in five of eight counties, with the northernmost locality in Ellington in Tolland County. The absence of records of O. saltator from the upper corners of the state was not due to lack of sampling. In late summer of 2015 and 2016, cross-vane panel traps were deployed at 26 different locations in Litchfield County and Windham County, the two counties in the upper corners of the state. In addition, in 2016 bushes of V. dentatum were beaten for Pyrrhalta viburni at 58 locations in these two counties.

Immatures of O. saltator were captured between 22 July and 4 September whereas adults were captured between 14 August and 14 October. Adult activity may have continued after sampling activities ended in mid-October.