Phaneroptera sparsa Stål, 1857

Massa, Bruno, 2021, Some new species of Phaneroptera, Eulioptera and Scolocerca (Orthoptera Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae) from West Tropical Africa, Zootaxa 4948 (1), pp. 123-135 : 124

Phaneroptera sparsa Stål, 1857

( Figs. 1-16 )

Material examined. 162³, 208♀ from the following African countries: Zambia (9³, 10♀) , Tanzania (2³, 2♀) , Ethiopia (4³, 6♀) , Cameroon (3³, 2♀) , Gabon (4³, 1♀) , Angola (2³, 2♀) , Central African Republic (12³, 16♀) , Côte d’Ivoire (94³, 118♀) , Togo (8³, 9♀) , Liberia (2³, 2♀) , Burkina Faso (15³, 23♀) , Senegal (8³, 17♀) , Morocco (1³, 1♀) , Tunisia (1³, 1♀) ( ANHRT and BMPC) .

Remarks. P. sparsa was described based on a female specimen from South Africa; it is certainly the most common and widespread species of the genus in tropical Africa (see Naskrecki & Guta 2019). Ragge (1980) synonymized P. africana Steinmann, 1966 with P. sparsa ; actually the true differences with P. sparsa are the small size and the v-shaped subgenital plate ( Steinmann 1966); thanks to Gellért Puskás, it was possible to receive some very good photos of the cerci, subgenital plate and stridulatory file of the holotype from Guinea (the only specimen known of this taxon) ( Figs. 1-2 ). The comparison of the stridulatory file with that of specimens of P. sparsa from Togo ( Fig. 4 ) and Central African Republic ( Fig. 5 ) does not reveal any differences, while the subgenital plate of P. africana ( Fig. 6 ) is very different from the typical subgenital plate of P. sparsa . However, it has been observed in some male specimens from tropical Africa a certain variability in this character; thus, the synonymy proposed by Ragge (1980) has to be definitively accepted.

Ragge (1980), in raising P. sparsa to species level, highlighted that it has a very wide geographic distribution, including Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, occurring also in south-eastern Spain and extending through the Levant, across the Anatolian Steppe to Armenia, and along the northern border of Iran to the Hindu Kush. However, the Turkish specimen bioacoustically recorded by Heller (1988) shows a different stridulatory file from P. sparsa ( Fig. 3 ), with many more teeth than in African specimens. Some specimens examined from Oman ( Fig. 7 ), United Arabian Emirates ( Massa et al. 2010, as P. sparsa ; Fig. 8 ), and Socotra ( Yemen) belong to a different taxon from P. sparsa , as well as from P. nana Fieber, 1853 ( Figs. 10-16 ), the latter being also variable in the shape of cerci, but less in the stridulatory file. The shapes of the subgenital plate ( Fig. 9 ) and the stridulatory file of the specimens from Socotra, Oman and Emirates are very similar to those of P. cleomis Ayal, Broza et Pener, 1974 (cf. Ayal et al. 1974). The presence of P. sparsa in the Middle East, and possibly also in the Iberian Peninsula should be confirmed with more consistent data.

Figures

FIGS. 1-9. Fig. 1. Cerci and subgenital plate of the holotype of Phaneroptera africana Steinmann, 1966 (Photo by G. Puskás); Fig. 2. Stridulatory file under the left tegmen of the same specimen (Photo by G. Puskás); Fig. 3. Stridulatory file of Phaneroptera sp., after Heller (1988); Fig. 4. Stridulatory file of P. sparsa Stål, 1857 from Togo (arrow indicates the particular double bending in the distal part); Fig. 5. Stridulatory file of P. sparsa from Central African Republic (arrow indicates the particular double bending in the distal part); Fig. 6. Cerci and subgenital plate of P. sparsa from Togo. Fig. 7. Stridulatory file of Phaneroptera aff. cleomis from Oman. Fig. 8. Stridulatory file of P. aff. cleomis from United Arabian Emirates. Fig. 9. Subgenital plate and cerci of P. aff. cleomis from Oman.

FIGS. 10-16. Phaneroptera nana Fieber, 1853. Fig. 10. Cerci and subgenital plate of a male from Sicily (Italy); Fig. 11. Cerci and subgenital plate of a male from Corsica (France); Fig. 12. Subgenital plate and cerci of a male from Pantelleria Island (Italy); Fig. 13. Particular of the cerci shape in the specimen from Pantelleria Is.; Fig. 14. Stridulatory file in a male from Sicily; Fig. 15. Stridulatory file in a male from Pantelleria Is.; Fig. 16. Stridulatory file in a male from Barcelona (Spain) (after Heller 1988).