Conocephalus (Megalotheca), Karny, 1907

Gorochov, Andrej V., 2009, Katydids of the genus Ewanella and of the subgenus Megalotheca (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), African Invertebrates 50 (2), pp. 435-435 : 439-440

Subgenus Megalotheca Karny, 1907 , stat. n.

Type species: M. vaginalis Karny, 1907 ( South Africa: Cape of Good Hope ) .

Remarks: This subgenus is similar to Conocephalus s. str. (the genus Conocephalus is divided into several subgenera by some previous authors, but many of them are possibly only groups of the same subgenus, as they are very similar to each other) in: the shape of the head rostrum in profile (with dorsal and ventral rostral tubercles closely contacting with each other; Figs 11, 15 ); the disposition of spines on the legs; and the structure of the stridulatory apparatus in the male ( Figs 12, 13, 16–18, 20, 21, 23, 27 ) and the abdominal apex in both sexes (including the same type of male genital sclerites; Figs 32, 35, 37, 42, 55 ). But its representatives differ from the majority of species of Conocephalus s. str. in the characters connected with their specialized stick-like appearance (strong adaptation to life on thin stems and very narrow leaves of grasses): body thin; head very long and with very narrow rostrum; proximal antennal segments thickened ( Fig. 12 ), pronotum low and without distinct humeral notches (in typical species of Conocephalus , it is high and with distinct humeral notches; for comparison see Figs 11, 14, 15, 19, 22 and 26, 28 ); fore and middle legs short; hind femora thin. In some species of Megalotheca the male cerci are very different in shape to those of Conocephalus s. str. (for comparison see Figs 43, 46, 50 and 53, 54, 56 ). However, in the other species of this subgenus the male cerci are similar to those of Conocephalus s. str. ( Figs 30, 33, 36, 38 ) or are intermediate ( Fig. 39 ). Also, some species of Conocephalus have the head similar to that of Conocephalus s. str. (their head is shorter and with wider rostrum than in Megalotheca ) and the structure of some other body parts more or less similar to that of Megalotheca (their subgeneric position is unclear; Figs 24, 25 ).

Species included (names in original binomen): Type species [= Xiphidion restiorum Peringuey, 1916 , synonymized by Uvarov (1928)]; M. xiphidioides Karny, 1907 ; X. parvulum Peringuey, 1916 ; X. longiceps Peringuey, 1916 ; M. montana Uvarov, 1928 ; C. phasma Gorochov & Llorente, 2004 ; C. marcelloi Gorochov & Llorente, 2004 ; C. (M.) namibius sp. n.; C. (M.) zlobini sp. n. Eades and Otte (2009) continue to include M. nigrifrons Chopard, 1952 in the genus Megalotheca , but Gorochov and Llorente (2004) have shown that this species probably belongs to another tribe of the Conocephalinae .

Figures

Figs 11–28. Conocephalus, male (after Karny (1907), Uvarov (1928), Gorochov & Llorente (2004), Eades & Otte (2009), and orig.): (11–13) C. phasma, head and pronotum laterally (11), head with base of left antenna, pronotum, and tegmina dorsally (12), stridulatory apparatus of right tegmen (13); (14) C. longiceps, pronotum laterally; (15) C. namibius sp. n., head and pronotum laterally; (16, 17) C. marcelloi, stridulatory apparatus of left (16) and right (17) tegmina; (18) C. xiphidioides, stridulatory apparatus of left tegmen; (19–21) C. zlobini sp. n., pronotum laterally (19), left tegmen (20), strudulatory apparatus of right tegmen (21); (22) C. montana, pronotum laterally; (23) C. parvula, stridulatory apparatus of left tegmen; (24) C. rhodesianus, pronotum laterally; (25) C. bechuanensis, pronotum laterally; (26, 27) C. discolor, pronotum laterally (26), stridulatory apparatus of left tegmen (27); (28) C. inaequalis, pronotum laterally.

Figs 30–56. Conocephalus, male (after Peringuey (1916), Uvarov (1928), Gorochov & Llorente (2004), Eades & Otte (2009), and orig.): (30–32) C. phasma, abdominal apex dorsally (30), hind part of genital plate ventrally (31), genital sclerites (32); (33–35) C. marcelloi, abdominal apex without left part dorsally (33), hind part of genital plate ventrally (34), genital sclerites (35); (36, 37) C. namibius sp. n., abdominal apex without left part dorsally (36), genital sclerites (37); (38) C. longiceps, cercus dorsally; (39–42) C. zlobini sp. n., abdominal apex dorsally (39), inner side of cercus (40), hind part of genital plate ventrally (41), genital sclerites (42); (43–45) C. montana, cercus dorsally (43) and laterally (45), its inner side (44); (46–49) C. parvula, cercus dorsally (46) and laterally (48), its inner side (47), hind part of genital plate ventrally (49); (50–52) C. vaginalis, cercus dorsally (50) and laterally (51), hind part of genital plate ventrally (52); (53) C. rhodesianus, cercus dorsally; (54, 55) C. discolor, cercus dorsally (54), genital sclerites (55); (56) C. inaequalis, cercus dorsally.