Small crickets of New Zealand (Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Trigonidiidae and Mogoplistidae), with the description of two new genera and species
Author
Hegg, Danilo
34DFC18A-F53D-417F-85FC-EF514F6D2EFD
Wētā Conservation Charitable Trust, 135 Blacks Road, Ōpoho, Dunedin 9010, New Zealand.
danilo@wetaconservation.org.nz
text
European Journal of Taxonomy
2024
2024-09-09
955
1
1
87
https://europeanjournaloftaxonomy.eu/index.php/ejt/article/download/2655/12275
journal article
10.5852/ejt.2024.955.2655
2118-9773
13742408
5D22E144-EF73-4085-9774-E853EEEC6001
Tribe
Trigonidiini
Saussure, 1874
Remarks
Trigonidiinae
in the Australian region include a number of genera and subgenera that have been giving taxonomists headaches for decades. To start with, the genus
Trigonidium
was designated with
type
species
Trigonidium cicindeloides
from
Spain
, Europe. The subgenus
Trigonidium
(
Trigonidium
)
was later proposed by
Gorochov (1987)
. At present, it is doubtful whether all Australian species assigned to
Trigonidium
actually belong in
Trigonidium
sensu stricto
at all (
Tan
et al.
2019
). Several closely related genera and subgenera were designated based on the presence or absence of auditory tympana on the anterior tibiae and of a stridulatory apparatus in males (
Otte & Alexander 1983
). Examples are the subgenera
Trigonidium
(
Metioche
)
,
Trigonidium
(
Balamara
)
Otte & Alexander, 1983
,
Trigonidium
(
Parametioche
)
Otte & Alexander, 1983
, and the genus
Trigonidomorpha
. Because acoustic communication has been lost several times independently in crickets, some of these genera are likely to be polyphyletic (
Otte & Alexander 1983: 197
;
Chintauan-Marquier
et al.
2016
;
Rentz & Su 2019: 316
;
Tan
et al.
2019
). To complicate things, different morphs with or without auditory tympana can appear in the same species (
Ingrisch 1977
;
Rentz & Su 2019
).
It is outside of the scope of this work to resolve the wider systematics of
Trigonidiinae
in the Australian region. Based on the strong similarities between
Trigonidium
(
Trigonidium
)
maoricum
and
Trigonidium
(
Trigonidium
)
cicindeloides
and on the analysis of molecular data (
Fig. 31
), I am confident that
T. maoricum
belongs to the genus
Trigonidium
s. str.
The genus
Trigonidomorpha
is synonymised here with
Trigonidium
(
Trigonidium
)
.