March 2004. Several insects were sent from the Maskelyne Islands, Vanuatu. They were indetified as follows:

An immature Tettigoniidae – long-horned grasshopper (top, left)
A cicada – genus near Baeturia (top, middle)
A Sphecid wasp (top right)

The grasshopper (top, left) is a Conocepahline – see PITKIN. L. (1980) A revision of the Pacific species of Conocephalus Thunberg Bull. BMNH Ent. 41(5): 315-355.

The wasp (top, right) is very close to a Vespid Delta esuriens okinawae, which was identified by ID Jim Wiley (DOACS, Florida) and Josef Gusenleitner (Linz/Austria). An image of the wasp is on the Cook Islands biodiversity database: http://www2.bishopmuseum.org/pbs/cookislands/.

The homopteran leafhopper (bottom, right).The photo is of a species of Dictyopharidae. Many of these look superficially alike (see http://www.agric.nsw.gov.au/Hort/ascu/fulgor/fulg08a.htm) but they are not necessarily related. There is a green dictyopharid in New Caledonia and Lifu Island called Montrouzierana oxycephala (Montrouzier) and there are specimens of the genus (which is currently monotypic) from northern Australia. Montrouzierana has crossveins all over the tegmen, whereas the picture shows that there are few crossvein basad of the preapical line. It might be a Hasta and may, therefore, be a recent introduction.

The female katydid [Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae] of the genus Phisis (bottom, left). A predator of small insects.