Pterinoxylini Hennemann, Conle & Perez–Gelabert, 2016

Hennemann, Frank H., Conle, Oskar V., Valero, Pablo & Nishida, Kenji, 2022, Studies on Neotropical Phasmatodea XXV: Revision of Pterinoxylus Serville, 1838, with the descriptions of two new species from Costa Rica. (Phasmatodea: Oriophasmata: Cladomorphinae: Pterinoxylini), Zootaxa 5208 (1), pp. 1-72 : 5

Tribe Pterinoxylini Hennemann, Conle & Perez–Gelabert, 2016

Type –genus: Pterinoxylus Serville, 1838: 226 .

Pterinoxylini Hennemann, Conle & Perez-Gelabert, 2016: 11 , 28.

Haplopodini Günther, 1953: 557 (in part).

Hesperophasmatini Bradley & Galil, 1977: 188 (in part).

Phibalosomini (Sectio V: Phibalosomata) Redtenbacher, 1908: 399 (in part).

The tribe Pterinoxylini was established by Hennemann et al.(2016:28) to contain solely the genus Pterinoxylus Serville, 1838 . These authors have presented a detailed description, a slightly adapted version of which is here reproduced as the generic description. While the presence of sensory areas on the probasisternum and profurcasternum are shared with Hesperophasmatini and support a sister-group relationship with this tribe, the presence of a stridulatory organ in the basal portion of the costal region of the alae is an autapomorphy of Pterinoxylini . Moreover, the anal fan of the alae in Pterinoxylini has a convex contour with the outer margin arched downwards when the wing is opened. Another autapomorphy of Pterinoxylini is represented bv the morphology of the eggs, which are characteristic for the elongate, alveolar capsule that has a peripheral polar excrescence and an operculum that bears a huge, hollow peripheral or crest-like excrescence on the outer margin. Furthermore, Pterinoxylini have a well-developed gula, which is reduced in members of Hesperophasmatini . Thus, based exclusively on morphological characters, Hennemann et al. (2016) were prompted to introduce an individual tribe for Pterinoxylus , suggested that the tribe Haplopodini might possibly be the sister-group of Pterinoxylini + Hesperophasmatini and hypothesized that these three tribes form a separate lineage within the subfamily Cladomorphinae sensu lato (see Hennemann et al., 2016: 181, fig. 409).

The monophyly of this clade that comprises the aforementioned taxa was supported by a molecular approach by Simon et al. (2019), which beyond that showed this Neotropical clade not to belong to the exceptionally New World Occidophasmata but to the Old World Oriophasmata. This result is in concordance with two recent and more comprehensive molecular approaches by Bank & Bradler (2022) and Forni et al. (2022), which both render the clade as monophyletic and as a lineage of Old World Phasmatodea . There are however discrepancies between the morphological approach by Hennemann et al. (2016), which places Haplopodini as sister to Hesperophasmatini + Pterinoxylini , and subsequent molecular approaches. Bank & Bradler (2022) and Forni et al. (2022) agree in that Pterinoxylus forms a well-supported clade together with two Central American genera of Hesperophasmatini (i.e. Rhynchacris Redtenbacher, 1908 and Hypocyrtus Redtenbacher, 1908 ), but in both trees Pterinoxylus results as nested within Hesperophasmatini and not as sister to the all sampled Hesperophasmatini-genera. Although basically in accordance, the topologies between these two molecular studies slightly differ from each other: ( Hypocyrtus + Rhynchacris ) + Pterinoxylus according to Bank & Bradler (2022) and Hypocyrtus + ( Rhynchacris + Pterinoxylus ) according to Forni et al. (2022). These and other discrepancies between the results of morphological and molecular approaches certainly deserve more detailed evaluation and should be explicitly addressed by forthcoming studies.