Drymadusini katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Tettigoniinae): intraspecific variability-morphs or subspecies?
Author
Korsunovskaya, Olga
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Biology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Leninskie Gory, 1, Bd 12, 119234, Moscow, Russia
text
Zootaxa
2024
2024-01-18
5403
1
42
50
http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5403.1.2
journal article
10.11646/zootaxa.5403.1.2
1175-5326
10561521
F6EA9A80-45CA-4A27-AFA9-8A0A813907EC
L. heptapotamicus
(
Pylnov, 1911
)
.
Redescription of the male and description of the female of this species are given in the article of
Bey-Bienko (1951)
. At the same time, the author notes that the described female may belong to another species, and only
additional material
can confirm or refute its belonging to this species. This point of view is shared by Childevaev
et al.
(2013). They collected a series of males and females from the type locality and provided a detailed description of the
topotype
female. The male (
holotype
) is a fairly large insect with a body
31 mm
long (
Table 1
).
Taxonomic notes.
The color uniform, brownish (
Fig. 2A
); tegmina are shortened and do not reach the posterior edge of the second abdominal tergite (
Fig. 2B
); cerci in the distal third are curved inward at almost a right angle, with an elongated and pointed tip (
Fig. 2C
). Titillators. A preparation of the male genitalia (
holotype
) shows that the titillators have a more massive basal part, their distal part, lacking significant denticles, is almost twice as narrow as the basal part (
Fig. 2G
).
TABLE 1.
Body measurements of
Eulithoxenus
and
Lithoxenus
bush-crickets (in mm).
Species, specimen |
Body lenght |
Pronotum |
Tegmina, visible portion |
Hind femur |
Ovipositor |
Reference |
Eulithoxenus mongolicus
,
♂, type
|
17 |
5,5 |
2,5 |
14 |
Uvarov, 1928
|
E. mongolicus
,
3 ♂, topotypes
|
17–18,5 |
4,1–5,3 |
2–2,2 |
14–14,5 |
E. mongolicus
forma
caeruleum
, 1 ♂
|
18 |
4,7 |
3,1 |
14,2 |
Lithoxenus heptapotamicus heptapotamicus
♂, holotype,
|
31 |
8.5 |
3 |
21 |
Pylnov, 1911
|
L. h.
heptapotamicus
, ♂, topotypes
|
24,5–32 mean 28,9 |
7,5–8,7 mean 8,35 |
1,5–3,5 mean 2 |
17–21,5 mean 19,2 |
Childebaev
et al.,
2013
|
L. heptapotamicus heptapotamicus
♀, topotypes
|
24,5–30 mean 28,5 |
6,5–8,5 mean 8,1 |
0,5–0,8 |
17–19,5 mean 18,75 |
13,7–16,2 mean 14,9 |
Childebaev
et al.,
2013
|
L. heptapotamicus minutus
, ♂ holotype
|
19 |
7 |
2,7 |
15,7 |
L. heptapotamicus minutus
, ♀ paratype
|
23 |
8 |
- |
17 |
14,5 |
L. miramae
, ♂, holotype
|
26,2 |
7,2 |
1,8 |
19 |
Veltistshev, 1940
|
L. miramae
3 ♂
|
18 |
6,8–7,5 |
3–3,5 |
19 |
Bush-crickets collected in
Kyrgyzstan
were identified as
L. heptapotamicus
, because they have very similar abdominal terminalia (
Fig. 2E
) and genitalia (
Fig. 2F
) and their hind tibia bear 16–20 spines. However, their sizes turned out to be significantly smaller than those of the male and female from the
type
series (
Table 1
). Based on this character and the geographic distribution of the known specimens, we find it reasonable to describe a new subspecies of
L. heptapotamicus minutus
. We believe that this form is not ecologically determined, since all katydids of this species are collected in mountain biotopes (from
1000 m
a. s. l.) and have a similar lifestyle: they live on rocky steppes or screes, usually under stones.