A new genus of African Acrometopini (Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) based on morphology, chromosomes, acoustics, distribution, and molecular data, and the description of a new species
Author
Hemp, Claudia
Author
Voje, Kjetil Lysne
Author
Heller, Klaus-Gerhard
Author
Warchałowska-Śliwa, Elżbieta
Author
Hemp, Andreas
text
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
2010
2010-01-31
158
1
66
82
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00542.x
journal article
10.1111/j.1096-3642.2009.00542.x
0024-4082
4720080
ALTIHORATOSPHAGA NOMIMA
(
KARSCH, 1896
)
COMB. NOV.
Peronura nomima
Karsch, 1896: 327
. One male
syntype
, Tanganyika, Mpwapwa,
5 June 1890
(Stuhlmann);
two female
syntypes
, Tanganyika, Mpwapwa,
7 June 1890
(Stuhlmann); MNB.
Additional material examined:
One
male and
one female
,
Tanganyika Territory
,
Mroke
30
August
21 (Swynnerton);
one male
one female
,
Tanganyika
,
Ruaha National Park
,
15 March 1966
(FitzGerald);
NHML
.
Diagnosis:
Differs from all other
Altihoratosphaga
species
in a rather smooth pronotum with few very shallow rugosities only on the pronotal disc, and in the lack of black spots on the tegmina. In respect of body size it is the largest
Altihoratosphaga
species.
Differentiating characters of all
Altihoratosphaga
species
are listed in
Table 3
.
Discussion:
The Mpwapwa plateau, a mountainous area north of the small town Mpwapwa, reaches elevations of up to
1500 m
a.s.l. It is suggested that
A. nomima
occupies a similar habitat (i.e. herbaceous vegetation in clearings and along forest edges of the submontane–montane zone) as the other
Altihoratosphaga
species.
As
A. nomima
specimens are also recorded from further south, from the Ruaha National Park, where this species was collected from riverine vegetation, this species is presumed to occur on the mountainous areas in between, such as further east in the Ukaguru Mountains, which reach elevations of over
1500 m
a.s.l., or the Rubeho Mountains, with elevations of over
1800 m
a.s.l. However, the male from Ruaha and the
holotype
male from Mpwapwa differ slightly in some characters. The male cerci in the
holotype
of
A. nomima
(
Fig. 8H
) are more acute than those of the male from Ruaha National Park (
Fig. 9D
). Also, the venation of the tegmina differs slightly, and the Mpwapwa male has more rugosities on the pronotal disc than the Ruaha specimen. More material from this region of
Tanzania
is necessary, as well as data on habitat and ecology (song), to decide whether specimens from these two localities belong to the same species.