Schizodactylus inexspectatus (often misspelled "inexpectatus") is a species of dune cricket (Schizodactylidae) endemic to sand dunes of Çukurova and Göksu Deltas, Turkey.[1]
Schizodactylus inexspectatus was first described by Franz Werner in 1901 under the name Comicus inexspectatus.[2] It was transferred to the genus Schizodactylus in 1931.[1] The species was known from only a single individual and was not found again for almost a century, with the species generally thought to be extinct, but it was rediscovered in the Çukurova Delta after almost a century.[3]
Adults reach long, and are yellow in colour, with black patches on the pronotum that resemble a butterfly. The cephalon and thorax representing more of the length than the abdomen. The antennae are 80mm90mm long.[1] The adults have short wings, approximately 10mm long, but they are incapable of flight. There are nine nymphal stages before adulthood, the first of which has a body length of 7mm.[1]
Schizodactylus inexspectatus feeds on the mole cricket Gryllotalpa gryllotalpa, the beetles Scarabaeus sacer, Pentodon bidens, Scaurus puncticollis, Zophosis dilatata and Erodius orientalis, the German cockroach Blattella germanica and the ant-lion Myrmeleon.[1] It lives in burrows in sand dune systems in eastern Turkey, especially in the Çukurova delta.