National Parks of Taiwan

Kinmen National Park hired Formosa Ecological Company has taken a census of and photograph insects in the Leiyu area since 2015. The executor of this project Mr. Yung-Jen Chang found groups of Diaphanogryllacris laeta in the Taiwu Mountain area as well as Xiwu and Kirin Mountain area in Leiyu.

Most people are not familiar with insects in the Gryllacrididae family, they belong to the same Orthoptera order as locusts, katydids, and grasshoppers. They have features of both grasshoppers and katydids, so they are named “Xizhong” in Chinese, with Xi referring to grasshoppers and Zhong to Katydids. Diaphanogryllacris laeta are very rare and only listed on TaiBNET by the Biodiversity Research Center, Academia Sinica. In Taiwan, there are only two insects in the Gryllacrididae family, but not including Diaphanogryllacris laeta.

According to the park, Diaphanogryllacris laeta are usually seen in provinces in southern China. However, very little information about them is on the Internet, their pictures are also hard to find, and they have never existed on the main island of Taiwan. This time, pictures taken by Mr. Chang include everything such as imagoes, nymphs, and their frightening looks. These pictures are shown in this country to the public for the first time. They are the precious proof of the biodiversity in Kinmen.