Pamphagidae (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) from the Palaearctic Region: taxonomy, classification, keys to genera and a review of the tribe Nocarodeini I. Bolívar
Author
Ünal, Mustafa
text
Zootaxa
2016
4206
1
1
223
journal article
37403
10.11646/zootaxa.4206.1.1
5c5bff7d-ea8c-4893-b03e-a8b5c5904514
1175-5326
208260
E1566C02-9987-4116-83AA-91D3D1DCF2FF
Subgenus:
Cryptonothrotes
La Greca, 2004
La Greca 2004
: 504. Type species:
Cryptonothrotes pseudoapterus
La Greca, 2004
.
Remarks.
The monotypic genus
Cryptonothrotes
established by
La
Greca (2004
: 504) with its new species
C. pseudoapterus
La Greca, 2004
as the last paper published after he died (Fontana 2004). It was distinguished from
Tropidauchen
Saussure
and
Saxetania
Mistshenko
only by the presence of tegmina and from
Mistshenkoella
Cejchan
by the different shape of male tegmina (
La Greca 2004
).
Tropidauchen
is different from
Saxetania
,
Mistshenkoella
and
Cryptonothrotes
by the male genitalia (see the Remarks section of
Saxetania
and key to genera of Tropidauchenini above). So indeed the genera
Saxetania
,
Mistshenkoella
and
Cryptonothrotes
are distinguished only by the different stages of reduction of tegmina. All the other characters including the male genitalia in fact belong to a single genus. I agree with
Mason (1959)
who treated the vestigial tegmina in the supposedly apterous genera
Tropidauchen
,
Nocarodes
and
Nocaracris
, and stated for these genera that “they have lost the use of their elytra and wings relatively recently”. I have also observed during this study that many species of
Nocarodeini
and Tropidauchenini have strongly reduced (vestigial) tegmina. But practically I have also deemed them apterous herein because of their unuseable structure taxonomically which are very strongly reduced and mostly ridge-like. But the genera
Mistshenkoella
and
Cryptonothrotes
have distinctly more developed, larger tegmina especially in males which have taxonomic value. Therefore I consider them as subgenera of the genus
Saxetania
.