Cryptonothrotes La Greca, 2004

Ünal, Mustafa, 2016, Pamphagidae (Orthoptera: Acridoidea) from the Palaearctic Region: taxonomy, classification, keys to genera and a review of the tribe Nocarodeini I. Bolívar, Zootaxa 4206 (1), pp. 1-223 : 86

Subgenus: Cryptonothrotes La Greca, 2004

La Greca 2004: 504. Type species: Cryptonothrotes pseudoapterus La Greca, 2004 .

Remarks. The monotypic genus Cryptonothrotes established by La Greca (2004: 504) with its new species C. pseudoapterus La Greca, 2004 as the last paper published after he died (Fontana 2004). It was distinguished from Tropidauchen Saussure and Saxetania Mistshenko only by the presence of tegmina and from Mistshenkoella Cejchan by the different shape of male tegmina ( La Greca 2004). Tropidauchen is different from Saxetania , Mistshenkoella and Cryptonothrotes by the male genitalia (see the Remarks section of Saxetania and key to genera of Tropidauchenini above). So indeed the genera Saxetania , Mistshenkoella and Cryptonothrotes are distinguished only by the different stages of reduction of tegmina. All the other characters including the male genitalia in fact belong to a single genus. I agree with Mason (1959) who treated the vestigial tegmina in the supposedly apterous genera Tropidauchen , Nocarodes and Nocaracris , and stated for these genera that “they have lost the use of their elytra and wings relatively recently”. I have also observed during this study that many species of Nocarodeini and Tropidauchenini have strongly reduced (vestigial) tegmina. But practically I have also deemed them apterous herein because of their unuseable structure taxonomically which are very strongly reduced and mostly ridge-like. But the genera Mistshenkoella and Cryptonothrotes have distinctly more developed, larger tegmina especially in males which have taxonomic value. Therefore I consider them as subgenera of the genus Saxetania .