Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 July 2009
The genus Dociostaurus, Fieb., which is synonymous with Stauronotus, Fisch., includes several species of locusts and grasshoppers injurious to agriculture in South-Eastern Europe, Central and Western Asia and North Africa, the well known Moroccan locust (Dociostaurus maroccanus, Thunb.) being one of the worst pests in Algeria, Tunisia, Asia Minor, the Caucasus and Turkestan. The systematics of the species of this genus are in a very unsatisfactory state, and this, together with the tendency of the species to individual variability, is the cause of many mistakes in their identification on the part of economic entomologists. The object of this paper is, therefore, to establish a more or less natural system of the species enabling everyone to identify them with certainty.
page 401 note * I am obliged to Dr. W. Ramme, who kindly studied for me Charpentier’s type of cruciatus in the Berlin Museum and informed me that it is identical with maroccanus, Thunb.
page 402 note * The biology of D. maroccanus is fully described by W. La Baume in a recently published book.