Pseudophyllinae (Kirby, 1906)

Mugleston, Joseph D., Naegle, Michael, Song, Hojun & Whiting, Michael F., 2018, A Comprehensive Phylogeny of Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera: Ensifera) Reveals Extensive Ecomorph Convergence and Widespread Taxonomic Incongruence, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 2 (4), No. 5, pp. 1-27 : 25

Pseudophyllinae Group

Pseudophyllinae (false-leaf katydids) under its current definition contains nearly 1,000 described species. Most species within this subfamily are placed in one of two supertribes: Pleminiiti and

Pseudophylliti. Taxa currently considered within this subfamily are found primarily in the Old World and New World tropics with a few found in the Holarctic region. False-leaf katydids are generally recognized by the strong margins around the antennae and the small, exposed thoracic auditory spiracle. However, the auditory spiracle was shown to be convergent ( Mugleston et al. 2013) and has resulted in the subfamily Pterochrozinae being removed from within Pseudophyllinae .

The remaining taxa, which have been traditionally assigned to Pseudophyllinae , are confined to two clades. One clade is predominantly Old World katydids ( Fig. 17 ) that show multiple dispersals to Africa from an Indomalayan ancestor. The two tribes with more than a single exemplar, Cymatomerini (bark-mimicking katydids) and Phyllomimini, were found to be paraphyletic. Pseudophylliti is currently paraphyletic and should not continue to be used unless the genus Phricta is removed from this superfamily.

The second clade in the Pseudophyllinae group contains primarily New World taxa with the exception of the African genus Adenes ( Karsch, 1891) ( Fig. 18 ). Transoceanic dispersal to Africa from a Neotropical ancestor is evident from the African lineage being a more recent split in this clade. The genera in this clade are currently placed in the supertribe Pleminiiti , but Pleminiiti is paraphyletic due to Goethalsiella sp. and Ischnomela sp. recovered as sister to the rest of the Mecopodinae group ( Fig. 16 ) as described above. If Pleminiiti continues to be used, Goethalsiella and Ischnomela should not be included in this group.

Figures

Fig. 17. Pseudophyllinae group: supertribe ‘Pseudophylliti’. Vertical bars indicate subtribes, tribes, and subfamilies. Paraphyletic groups are marked with an asterisk. Posterior probability values over 90 are marked with a circle at the node. Photo credit: Nigel Voaden.

Fig. 18. Pseudophylline group: supertribe ‘Pleminiiti’.Vertical bars indicate subtribes, tribes, and subfamilies. Paraphyletic groups are marked with an asterisk. Posterior probability values over 90 are marked with a circle at the node. Photo credits are as follows: (Pterophylla camellifolia (Fabricius, 1775)) Tom Murray, (Championica sp. (Saussure & Pictet, 1898) and Balboana sp.(Uvarov, 1939)) Arthur Anker.

Fig. 16. Early Phaneropteroid clade lineages and Mecopodinae group.Vertical bars indicate subtribes, tribes, and subfamilies. Paraphyletic groups are marked with an asterisk. Posterior probability values over 90 are marked with a circle at the node. Photo credits are as follows: (Ischnomela sp.) (Stål, 1873) Joseph Mugleston, (Eumecopoda sp.) (Hebard, 1922) Hojun Song.