Pternoscirta caliginosa (Haan, 1842)

Huang, Jianhua, Storozhenko, Sergey Yurievich, Mao, Benyong & Zheng, Zhemin, 2013, Taxonomic notes on Pternoscirta pulchripes Uvarov, 1925 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Oedipodinae) with proposal of new synonyms in the genera Flatovertex and Mioscirtus, Zootaxa 3718 (6), pp. 545-560 : 547-550

Pternoscirta caliginosa (Haan, 1842)

( Figs. 1–13 )

Acridium (Oedipoda) caliginosum Haan, 1842: 161 .

Pternoscirta caliginosa (Haan) ; Saussure, 1884: 128; Jacobson, 1905: 187, 252; Kirby, 1910: 217; Kirby, 1914: 135; C. Willemse, 1928: 14; C. Willemse, 1930: 61, 208; Bey-Bienko & Mishchenko, 1951: 589; Xia, 1958: 159; F. Willemse, 1965: 64; Zheng, 1985: 253, 254; Ingrisch, 1990: 177; Storozhenko, 1992: 45; Zheng, 1993: 192; Liu et al, 1995: 88, 146; Zheng & Xia, 1998: 7; Jiang & Zheng, 1998: 194; Mahmood et al, 2008: 374; Mao et al, 2011: 158.

Flatovertex cyaneitibialis Zhang & Han, 2010: 49 . Syn. Nov.

Type locality: Malaysia (Java).

Location of type: Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Histoire (RMNH), Leiden, Netherlands.

Male. Body length: 19.0–23.0 mm; pronotum length: 5.0– 5.5 mm; tegmina length: 19.0–21.0 mm; hind femur length: 12.2–13.0 mm.

Body medium-sized. Head and pronotum coarse and scabrous, with dense short carinae and tubercles.

Head. Head large and short. Face nearly straight or slightly oblique in profile view, connecting blunt-angularly with vertex; frontal ridge broadly sulcate throughout, with lateral sides slightly constricted just below median ocellus; facial keels distinct and slightly curved. Vertex slightly oblique forwards in lateral view, broadly flattened or distinctly depressed in dorsal view with truncate anterior margin and roundly curved carinate lateral margins; foveolae small, distinct and triangular or subcircular. Eyes oval and protruding, with vertical diameter about one and a half times as long as horizontal diameter, one and a third times as long as subocular furrow. Antennae filiform, exceeding posterior margin of pronotum, with median segments about one and a half times as long as broad.

Thorax. Pronotum irregularly tumescent at prozona and sparsely granulate at metazona, constricted anterior to posterior transverse sulcus in dorsal view and broadened posteriorly; anterior margin slightly bisinuate and angulate in the middle, posterior margin blunt-angularly protruding; median carina distinctly raised, straight and deeply incised by posterior transverse sulcus in lateral view, lateral carina absent or weakly visible at metazona; anterior and middle transverse sulci present but not crossing with median carina, posterior transverse sulcus situated much before the middle and metazona about one and two thirds times as long as prozona; lateral lobes higher than long, anterior and posterior margins nearly parallel, anteroventral corner bluntly angular and posteroventral corner rounded. Interspace of mesosternal lobes broader than long, metasternal lobes separate.

Tegmina and hind wings developed. Tegmina narrow and long, with dense veins; longitudinal veins oblique in apical part; apex rounded, exceeding apices of hind femur by fourth to fifth of its full length; median area slightly broader than cubital area, precostal, median and cubital areas all with intercalary veins; median intercalary vein with stridulating files, closer to precubitus basally and to media apically; cross-veins oblique to longitudinal veins in apical part of tegmen and arranged in zig-zag, cells parallelogrammic. Hind wing slightly shorter than tegmina.

Fore legs with femora and tibiae sulcate throughout at inner sides, but middle legs at outer sides; hind femora slightly stout, about three and two fifths times as long as broad, upper median carina with distinct denticles, lower genicular lobe rounded; hind tibiae with eight spines at outer side and ten spines at inner side, ectoapical spine absent; arolium large, exceeding beyond half of claws.

Abdomen. Tympanum developed, aperture large and oval, tympanic membrane small. Supra-anal plate triangular, with distinct carinate margin, apex pointed; median portion broadly longitudinally sulcate at basal half and folded with a distinct transverse carina. Cerci long, straight and conical, exceeding the apex of the supra-anal plate. Subgenital plate short and conical in lateral view, apex narrowly rounded in dorsal view.

Coloration. Body yellowish brown, legs and ventral surface, especially the ventral sides of hind femora, covered with dense long silvery pubescences. Antennae with apical third dark, especially in ventral surface. Pronotum with a distinct or indistinct X-shaped strip. Tegmina dark brown, with two indistinct pale black maculation near the base; hind wing hyaline and cinereous, veins pale yellowish in basal part and dark in remaining part. Hind femora with three black transverse maculation in upper surface, two black maculation in inner surface, the larger one at the basal half and the smaller one near the apex; inner genicular lobes black; hind tibiae black in basal half with yellowish brown annulations near the base, dark blue in apical half, tibial spines black; tarsi blackish brown.

Female. Body length: 25.0–28.0 mm; pronotum length: 6.0– 6.8 mm; tegmina length: 22.0–24.0 mm; hind femur length: 15.0–17.0 mm.

Similar to male. Body larger and much more stouter. Vertex with interocular space less than one and two fifths times as vertical diameter of eyes, but more than two and a third times as the width of frontal ridge between antennal sockets. Frontal ridge broad, with three depressions above and below median ocular and near clypeus, respectively. Eyes oval, vertical diameter about one and a fifth times as long as horizontal diameter, and nearly as long as subocular furrow. Pronotum with posterior transverse sulcus situated much before the middle and metazona about one and four fifths times as long as prozona. Tegmina with cubital area slightly broader than median area at its broadest part. Supra-anal plate triangular and convex, dorsum flattened. Subgenital plate nearly square, posterior margin slightly rounded convex in the middle. Ovipositor short and smooth, upper valves much stouter than lower valves. Body colour the same as male.

Materials examined. Pternoscirta caliginosa : two males and one female (GNU), CHINA: Ganxi, Tongdao County, Hunan Province, 400–600 m, 2 November 2002, collected by Changjun Yang ( Figs. 2–4 ); one male and five females (GNU), CHINA: Yuelushan, Changsha, Hunan Province, 100 m, 15 September 1989, collected by Chengning Zhu ( Figs. 5–6 ); one male (14020904) and one female (14020665, hind tibiae pale yellowish) (IMS), CHINA: Yanshan, Guilin, Guangxi Province, 29 November 1979, collected by Xianwei Liu; one female nymph (14502280, hind tibiae reddish) (IMS), CHINA: Dongshanqiao, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province, 11 September 1982, collected by Xingbao Jin. Flatovertex cyaneitibialis : holotype male (HU), CHINA: Leishan County, 26°15'– 26° 32'N, 108° 5'– 108°24'E, 650–1350 m, Guizhou Province, 18 May 2005, collected by Jinyu Zheng ( Figs. 7–9 ); paratypes, two males (HU), the same data as holotype ( Figs. 10–13 ).

Distribution. CHINA (Hunan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Guangdong, Guangxi, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui), INDIA, NEPAL, VIETNAM, MALAYSIA ( Malacca Peninsula, Java, Sumatra).

Remarks. Flatovertex cyaneitibialis was described based on the types from Leishan County, Guizhou Province, China (Zhang & Han, 2010). Since Flatovertex was synonymized with Pternoscirta , it was compared with all Pternoscirta species. As a result, we found that Flatovertex cyaneitibialis completely agreed with Pternoscirta caliginosa morphologically. Therefore, we propose Flatovertex cyaneitibialis herein as a junior synonym of Pternoscirta caliginosa .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 13. 1 – 6. Pternoscirta caliginosa (Haan, 1842). 1. Holotype male in dorsal view. 2 – 4. Male from Tongdao County, Hunan Province. 2. Dorsal view. 3. Lateral view. 4. Inner surface of hind femur. 5 – 6. female from Yuelushan Hunan province. 5. Dorsal view. 6. Lateral view. 7 – 13. Flatovertex cyaneitibialis Zhang & Han, 2010. 7 – 9. Holotype male. 7. Dorsal view. 8. Lateral view. 9. Labels. 10 – 13. Paratype male. 10. Dorsal view. 11. Head and thorax in dorsal view. 12. Inner surface of hind femur. 13. Labels.