Let’s take a moment to appreciate the amazing real-life monster that is Sagapedo. Why makes this fierce Amazon cricket so amazing? Let’s find out!
(Note: none of those photos are mine and all have been correctly credited to the best of my knowledge. If there’s any problem with them being here let me know!)
1. Let’s face it, the Latin name Saga pedo read in English could be interpreted very poorly in a number of ways. Just wanted to get that out of the way.
2. So instead, it has a number of intimidating vernacular names, either related to its behavior, its size, or its spikiness – or all of the above. These include the English “Spiked Magician”, the French “Magicienne Dentelée” and “Langouste de Provence”, the Italian “Stregona Dentellata”, and the German “Große Sägeschrecke“.
(Ouch, yes? From Wikipedia.)
3. Why “magician”? Because of the way it holds its front legs, much like a mantis. In fact…
4. Saga pedo is a tettigoniid, a bush cricket (or katydid to you Yankees), and is part of the larger family of grasshoppers, crickets, and such. Tettigoniids are generally omnivorous, and Saga pedo is a cricket taking predation to the next level. You could say it’s converging on mantids.
5. It’s huge, one of the biggest European insects. It’s also wingless and can’t fly. This size and winglessness has led to it being called a “lobster” in some names.
6. See those spines on the inside of its forelegs? They’re used for the exact same purpose mantids use their raptorial forelimbs: grabbing and impaling prey. For that matter note that they don’t have the defensive hind-leg spikes.
7. They will eat anything they can catch, and that includes their own kind. Prey is killed by biting through the neck. They don’t appreciate being manhandled either, and can bite hard.
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