Symmetrokarschia, Massa, Bruno, 2015

Massa, Bruno, 2015, New genera, species and records of Phaneropterinae (Orthoptera, Phaneropteridae) from sub-Saharan Africa, ZooKeys 472, pp. 77-102 : 80-81

Taxon classification Animalia Orthoptera Phaneropteridae

Genus Symmetrokarschia gen. n.

Type-species.

Symmetropleura africana Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, here designated.

The original description of the male holotype of Symmetropleura africana Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878, from Congo is the following (translated from Latin): large (37 mm), pronotum disc with regular impressed punctures, wide tegmina, with rounded hind border, radius forked before media, male tenth tergite laminate and protruding, with straight hind border, cerci little in-curved, with flat apex and pointed, sub-genital plate long, narrow, with obtuse and short cut apex; the description of the female from Chinchoxo (Cameroon) by Karsch (1889) reports the ovipositor shape, shorter than pronotum, with upper border and apex of lower border finely serrulate. Karsch (1889) observed the differences between Symmetropleura africana and others of the genus and reported it as: Symmetropleura (Cameronia) africana . Later, only Bolívar (1906) recorded this species with the name used by Karsch, which we hardly may interpret as a subgenus, not still used at that time (cf. Ragge 1968b).

Etymology.

After the German entomologist and arachnologist Ferdinand Karsch (1853-1936), whose contribution to the knowledge of tropical African Orthoptera was really remarkable; he also observed the differences between African and American species of the genus Symmetropleura .

Remarks.

Main differences between Symmetrokarschia and Symmetropleura are: in Symmetropleura lateral margins of metanotum are keeled, male sub-genital plate is short with rounded margin, ovipositor is longer, basally straight and gently arcuate in the posterior part.