About Eugaster guyoni (Serville, 1838)
Eugaster spinulosa, called wagnim in Tashelhit (written ⵡⴰⴳⵏⵉⵎ in Tashelhit script), is a species of bush-cricket native to Morocco. It is commonly known as the whistle cricket, because herdsmen would dry individual crickets, remove their legs, and use the prepared insect as a functional whistle. After this species mates, males are unable to mate again for a period of ten days. Eugaster spinulosa was first formally described by Carl Linnaeus in his 1763 work Centuria Insectorum, under the original scientific name Gryllus spinulosus. The species' holotype was collected from the Barbary Coast, the region now corresponding to Morocco, in 1756. The specimen was part of Alexander Macleay's personal collection when he travelled to Sydney in 1826. It is currently the oldest dated specimen held by the University of Sydney's Macleay Museum. The specimen's original label is inscribed with the text: "A curious insect from Barbary, the only one known of its kind in England. Geo Edwards, 1756".
