Are the recently described fossil Mole Crickets of Myanmar amber real gryllotalpids? (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae & Gryllidae)
Author
Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J.
0000-0001-5646-0602
Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, Grupo de Investigación en Artrópodos “ Kumangui ” ojccorthoptera @ gmail. com; https: // orcid. org / 0000 - 0001 - 5646 - 0602
ojccorthoptera@gmail.com
Author
Liu, Yi-Jiao
School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Author
Yu, Zhe-Yuan
School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Author
Hu, Tian-Hao
School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
Author
Wu, Shi-Yang
Department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management, University of California, Berkeley, 94720, USA
Author
He, Zhu-Qing
Museum of Biology, School of Life Sciences, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200241, China
text
Zootaxa
2023
2023-06-28
5311
1
48
64
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5311.1.2
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5311.1.2
1175-5326
0657CB5C-6912-4886-A2DF-E0B325672886
Tribe
Sclerogryllini
Gorochov, 1985
Remarks.
This tribe was described by
Saussure (1877)
as “Légion des Scléropterites”, including
Acanthoplistus
Saussure, 1877
, and
Scleropterus
Haan, 1844
. Subsequently, this taxon was treated as a subfamily by
Shiraki (1930)
, and this status was followed by
Chopard (1934
,
1936
) and
Desutter (1987)
.
Gorochov (1985)
proposed a new name
Sclerogryllus
for
Scleropterus
Haan, 1844
, which has been used for
Scleropterus
Schoenherr, 1825
(
Coleoptera
). At the same time, Gorochov also established the tribal status as
Sclerogryllini
, with
Sclerogryllus
as the
type
genus under
Gryllinae
.
Otte (1994)
argued that according to the nomenclatural change proposed by Gorochov, the subfamily name should be changed to Sclerogryllinae. Otte used the name Sclerogryllinae for the first time, and this was followed by
Storozhenko
et al
. (2015)
.
Recently,
Yu
et al
. (2022)
published a complete mitochondrial genome of cricket
Sclerogryllus punctatus
. By phylogenetic analysis, they verified that
Sclerogryllus
was grouped within the
Gryllinae
clade. Therefore, Sclerogryllinae should be treated as a synonym of
Gryllinae
, and Gorochov’s tribe
Sclerogryllini
under
Gryllinae
is recommended rather than a different subfamily from field crickets.
Sclerogryllini
is a monogeneric tribe, with five species distributed in Asia.
Rhabdotogryllus caraboides
Chopard, 1954
from
Guinea
(Africa), is only known from its
holotype
female, and no additional records have been reported since its description.
R. caraboides
is superficially similar to
Sclerogryllus
females, but possessing more conspicuous dorsal spurs on the hind tibia. Thus, the homology of
Rhabdotogryllus
and
Sclerogryllus
is still a question, and
Sclerogryllini
probably only occurs in Asia. Here, we propose a new fossil subtribe that more closely resembles extant
Sclerogryllini
species in morphology than any other tribal taxon of field crickets. Additionally, a key to separate the taxa of the tribe is provided.