Hierodulini Brunner de Wattenwyl, 1893

Liu, Qin-Peng, Liu, Zi-Jun, Wang, Guo-Li & Yin, Zi-Xu, 2021, Taxonomic revision of the praying mantis subfamily Hierodulinae of China (Mantodea: Mantidae), Zootaxa 4951 (3), pp. 401-433 : 404-405

Tribe Hierodulini Brunner de Wattenwyl, 1893

Hierodulini Brunner de Wattenwyl, 1893: 62 .

Type genus: Hierodula Burmeister, 1838: 536 .

Diagnosis. Pcpl nearly smooth, without punctiform prominence; the first proximal discoidal spines distinctly short- er than the second; meso- and metafemora with an apical spine; paa apically with hook-like process as opposed to Archimantini .

Diversity and distribution. Burmeister (1838) listed 90 Mantodea species in 15 genera and firstly proposed Hierodula and Rhombodera as the subgenera of Mantis Linnaeus, 1758 . Stål (1877) then gave Hierodula a special treatment but considered Rhombodera , Sphodropoda , and Sphodromantis as subgenera of the genus ( Roy 2014). Hierodulinae was originally erected as Hierodulae Brunner de Wattenwyl, 1893 and initially included Hierodula , Rhombodera , Sphodropoda , and Arria ( Liu et al. 2020) . Giglio-Tos (1912) then undertook the necessary treatment of related groups and erected three new genera: Hierodulella Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Ephierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 and Parhierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 (= Hierodula Burmeister, 1838 ) and two new subgenera: Rhomboderula Giglio-Tos, 1912 in Parhierodula and Rhomboderella Giglio-Tos, 1912 in Sphodromantis Stål, 1871 , and proposed five genera in Hierodulae Brunner de Wattenwyl 1893. Thirteen new species in subgenus Hierodula , two new species in subgenus Rhombodera , thirteen new species in subgenus Parhierodula and three new species in subgenus Rhomboderula , and five new species in Sphodromantis were established by him at the same time. In 1917, Giglio-Tos then published four new species in the genus Hierodula and erected three new genera in his Hierodulae group. In the faunistic study of Indonesia by Werner in 1923, one new genus Gretella Werner, 1923 and one new subgenus Tamolanica Werner, 1923 of Hierodula were established in Mantinae . In 1927, Giglio-Tos posthumously published his first and the only book with identification keys for all mantids ( Roy 2014), which included fifty-six Hierodula species and ten genera in Hierodulae group: Hierodula Burmeister, 1838 , Sphodromantis Stål, 1871 , Tarachomantis Brancsik, 1892 , Hierodulella Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Ephierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Parhierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Pnigomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917 , Camelomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917 , Tisma Giglio-Tos, 1917 and Alalomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917 . Beier (1935) listed Hierodula, Rhomobodera , Sphodromantis , Rhomboderella , Camelomantis , Tamolanica Werner, 1923 , and Zopheromantis Tindale, 1924 as subgenera of Hierodula , dropping Parhierodula into a synonym of Tamolanica and Ephierodula into a synonym of Hierodula .

In 1942, Beier erected a monotypic genus Stictomantis Beier, 1942 to accommodate Hierodula cinctipes Werner, 1916 . Beier presented his system of Mantodea in 1964, which included three tribes and fifty genera in subfamily Mantinae Latreille, 1802 ; Sphodromantis was elevated to genus from Hierodula by him at that time.

Roy (1973) published a synopsis of the mantids of Gabon. In this publication, he added tribes Polyspilotini and Paramantini to the Mantinae , establishing Tismomorpha Roy, 1973 in Paramantini . Schwarz & Roy (2018b) remove Ephierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 from a synonymy of Hierodula . In the recent system by Schwarz & Roy (2019), Sphodromantis , Tarachomantis , and Alalomantis have been removed out of Hierodulinae . The tribe Hierodulini currently includes Mekongomantis Schwarz et al., 2018 , Camelomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917 , Chlorocalis Stiewe, Shcherbakov & Vermeersch, 2019, Tismomorpha Roy, 1973 , Hierodulella Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Rhombomantis Ehrmann & Borer, 2015 , Gretella Werner, 1923 , Hierodula Burmeister, 1838 , Ephierodula Giglio-Tos, 1912 , Stictomantis Beier, 1942 , Rhombodera Burmeister, 1838 , Tamolanica Werner, 1923 and Pnigomantis Giglio-Tos, 1917 .

Currently, fifteen genera with about 176 species, occur in the Oriental, Palaearctic, Australian and Afrotropical Regions.