Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas

Desutter-Grandcolas, Laure & Jaiswara, Ranjana, 2012, Phalangopsidae crickets from the Indian Region (Orthoptera, Grylloidea), with the descriptions of new taxa, diagnoses for genera, and a key to Indian genera, Zootaxa 3444, pp. 1-39 : 12-16

Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp.

( Figs 3 G–J, 4, 5, Table 1)

Type locality. India, Karnataka, env. 14 km Karkala, Kervasae Reserve forest.

Type material. Holotype: 1 male, 18.vii.2009, India, Karnataka, env. 14km Karkala, Kervasae Reserve forest, ZSI. Allotype: 1 female, same data as the holotype, ZSI. Paratypes. 22 males, 18 females. Same locality as holotype, 18.vii.2009, 4 males, 4 females. Karnataka, env. 14 km Karkala, Forêt de Panemburi, 25.vii.2002, KCW20, 1 male, 1 female, in alcohol; 17.vii.2009, 6 males, 4 females. Karnataka, close to Kuderemukh National Park, 18.vii.2009, 7 males, 5 females. Forêt de Horabi, 16.vii.2009, 4 males, 5 females ( MNHN, IISc).

Diagnosis. In addition to the characters of the genus, large species with very long legs but a short body ( Fig. 4 A). Colouration dark brown to black, with many yellow dots ( Fig. 4 A), especially on pronotum disc (four yellow dots) and tergites 2 – 5 (two lateral yellow flecks on each side, and a median half-circled one). Face with a wide longitudinal yellow band from median ocellus to the tip of labrum, narrowed on upper margins of clypeus and labrum ( Fig. 4 B); base of cerci and supra anal plate yellow. Male tergite 1 glandular ( Fig. 4 C). Male stridulatory file with about 25 teeth ( Fig. 5 A). Male genitalia: median process wide, narrowed only distally; lateral processes slightly longer, club-shaped; pseudepiphallic paramere ventral plate acute distally, as long as pseudepiphallic median process ( Fig. 5 B–D). Female: ovipositor well shorter than FIII, about 10 mm in length. Female genitalia: copulatory papilla elongate, resembling a horse foot but distinctly split on distal margin dorsally ( Fig. 3 G–I).

Description. In addition to the characters of the genus: Large species with very long legs but a short body ( Fig. 4 A). Body covered with dense, short setae. Head. Eyes distinctly protruding. Fastigium nearly as wide as the scape, not separated from the vertex. Ocelli small, located as an isoceles triangle; median ocellus subapical. Scapes longer than wide. Maxillary palpi very long and thin; joints 3 and 4 subequal in length; joint 5 longer than joints 3 and 4, slightly widened in distal fourth, distal margin truncate ( Fig. 3 A). Pronotum. Very large and transverse; dorsal disc convex; lateral lobes raised dorsally. Legs. All long and very thin. TI without tympanum; two long and thin apical spurs, the inner the longest. TII with two long and thin apical spurs, the inner the longest. FI and FII thinner at mid length than in apical third. FIII filiform in apical half. TIII with four pairs of subapical spurs, the outers longer and located higher on tibia than the inners; three pairs of apical spurs, the median spur the longest on both inner and outer sides; TIII serrulated on both inner and outer margins, except between apical and subapical spurs; spines most often thick and bent over the tibia; inner serrulation: no spine between spurs 1 and 2, one to three spines between spurs 2 and 3 (mean 1.3, n= 9 in males, mean 1.9, n= 10 in females), three to seven spines between spurs 3 and 4 (mean 4.1, n= 9 in males, mean 4.8, n= 10 in females), 10–18 above spurs (mean 12.7, n= 9 in males, mean 14.2, n= 10 in females); outer serrulation: zero to four spines between spurs 1 and 2 (mean 1.4, n= 10 in males, mean 2.2, n= 10 in females), five to 11 spines between spurs 2 and 3 (mean 6.7, n= 10 in males, mean 7.1, n= 10 in females), nine to 14 spines between spurs 3 and 4 (mean 10.8, n= 10 in males, mean 12.2, n= 10 in females), 14 to 21 spines above spurs (mean 17.2, n= 10 in males, mean 17.9, n= 10 in females). Tarsomeres 1 very long, longer than half TI and TII; tarsomeres 1–III about one third TIII length; basitarsomeres III with two rows of small spines dorsally: one to three inner spines (mean 2.3, n= 9 in males and females), and three to seven outer spines (mean 5.4, n= 9 in males, mean 5.5, n= 10 in females), in addition to distal spines; tarsomeres 3 about one third tarsomere 1. Terminalia. Cerci very long, more than twice body length ( Fig. 4 A).

Colouration. Black brown with yellow dots and lines. Head: vertex yellow with four brown lines, one close to each eye, and one running from each lateral side of fastigium, through one lateral ocellus, up to occiput; eyes circled with light yellow except on the face; face mottled brown and black brown, with a wide longitudinal yellow line running from median ocellus to labrum tip, a triangular yellow dot under each eye (wider along epistemal suture) and a faint, often hardly distinct, transverse dot below each antennal pit; posterior margin of cheeks brown; maxillari palpi brown; scapes light yellow and brown; antennae brown. Pronotum: black brown, pyriform inscriptions and two rounded dots close to distal margin lighter; two yellow pairs of dots on dorsal disc; anterior and posterior margins sometimes yellow, and the faint median furrow of dorsal disc variously yellow; distal margin of lateral lobes sometimes yellow. Legs yellow and brown, annulated ( Fig. 4 A); tibiae and tarsomeres light brown, with small yellow dots at the base of TIII subapical spurs; FI and FII yellow or brown at base, with three brown rings more or less prolonged along femur lower margin; FIII with two brown rings on filiform part, two wide brown bands on inner basal half and prolonged obliquely on outer side; a brown longitudinal band bordered with yellow on outer lower basal half. Distal margin of metanotum and tergite 1 yellow, this pattern more clear in females than in males. Tergites black, with a lighter median rounded fleck including a short yellow line on mid line and an elongate yellow spot on lateral side; tergites 1, 2 and 4 with two additional rounded yellow spots on each side; tergites 3, 6 and 7 with the elongate lateral spot very long. Sternites yellowish to light brown; distal margin darker. Terminalia: supra anal plate light brown, the base light yellow; cerci light brown with a light yellow ring at base, more or less prolonged on dorsal and ventral sides.

Male. Mesonotum and part of metanotum hidden under the pronotum; metanotum distal margin strongly raised above a large and hairy paired structure on tergite 1; distal margin of tergite 1 strongly bisinuate, with paired hollowed structures overlooked by a small cuticular hook ( Fig. 4 C). FWs short and not overlapping, FW convex with a surface with strong ultrastructural reliefs; their surface either convex (areas close to inner margin and above the file), or concave (area below the file, ie more distal, between CuA and media veins, and median fan) ( Fig. 4 D); venation faint, except the veins separating the dorsal and the lateral fields, 1A (file), 3A, diagonal and part of the chords; lateral field coming over the dorsum. Stridulatory apparatus complete but embedded in a network of large, regular cells ( Fig. 3 J); harp with two veins; diagonal short, oblique; mirror wide, crossed by one irregular, zigzaging vein; chords incomplete ( Figs 3 J, 4D); stridulatory file with about twenty five broadly aligned teeth ( Fig. 5 A). Supra anal plate longer than wide; a deep longitudinal, median furrow distally ( Fig. 4 E); a median triangular concavity in basal third; lateral angles not elongate. Subgenital plate short, quadrate; a deep longitudinal distal furrow ( Fig. 4 F).

Male genitalia. Anterior margin of pseudepiphallus reversed posteriorly, partly covering the pseudepiphallic sclerite ( Fig. 5 D); pseudepiphallic sclerotization delimiting a strong bottle-shaped median process (wide at base, abruptly narrow before apex; narrow part about one third the total length of the processus), and two long clubshaped lateral lobes longer than the median process ( Fig. 5 B, C); rami short, thick and curved, connected to pseudepiphallic sclerite; pseudepiphallic parameres with two short plates, one lateral and one dorsal, at the base of a long hook-shaped sclerite nearly as long as pseudepiphallic median process ( Fig. 5 C, D). Ectophallic apodemes thick, diverging from the arc ( Fig. 5 B); a thick plate between the pseudepiphallus and the arc ( Fig. 5 B). Ectophallic fold very short, truncated at apex ( Fig. 5 C). Endophallic sclerite long and thin, its distal margin with three long prongs ( Fig. 5 C); no dorsal cavity.

Female. Apterous. Distal margin of subgenital plate only slightly sinuate. Ovipositor well shorter than FIII (See Table 1); valves apex not widened and without ornementation.

Female genitalia. Copulatory papilla long and well sclerotized, as on Fig. 3 G–I.

Measurements. See Table 1.

Pron-L Pron-W Pron-mW FW-L FIII-L TIII-L Ovip-L Holotype 3.3 4.5 5.1 2.9 18.6 20.4 ---- Males (n=5) 2.8–3.4 3.8–4.9 4.2–5.5 2.1–2.6 15.4–17.9 17.7–19.3 ---- Mean (n=6) 3.1 4.3 4.9 2.5 17.2 18.8 ---- Allotype 3.3 4.6 5.0 ---- 17.1 18.7 11.7 Females (n=5) 2.8–3.2 3.9–4.5 4.2–4.7 ---- 15.4–18.6 16.7–19.1 9.5–11.7 Mean (n=6) 3.0 4.3 4.5 ---- 16.8 17.9 10.5 Variation. Very dark individuals are almost black and show only the brightest elements of the whole colouration pattern (face dark brown with only the median yellow line and the line under the triangular spot under the eye, pronotum with four yellow spots and a small longitudinal median line, tergites with few yellow dots).

Habitat. Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp. has been observed mostly on tree trunks, by day and by night. Contrary to other phalangopsid crickets active on tree trunks at night ( Desutter-Grandcolas 1992, 1995), they do not seem to specifically hide in cavities during daytime: 44% were thus found waiting on a trunk, while 56% were found in a kind of shelter, i.e. under raised bark (5%), in a small cavity (7%), in a shallow trough (9%) or most often on the lower side of a lean tree or liana (35%), where several couples were observed without apparent protection. This species was also found at night in small cavities of steep ground slopes along roadsides.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Kempiola Uvarov, 1940. A – E, Kempiola longipes (Chopard, 1924): A, maxillary palpus; B – C, inner (B), outer (C) apical spurs of hind tibia; D – E, copulatory papilla, dorsal (D), lateral (E). F, Kempiola subalatus (Chopard, 1970), n. comb., male genitalia, dorsal. G – J, Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp.: G – I, copulatory papilla, dorsal (G), ventral (H), lateral (I); male forewing (J), dorsal. Abbreviations: see text. Scales 1 mm.

FIGURE 4. Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp. A, male holotype, dorsal, scale 3 mm; B, face, front view; C, male meso- and metanotum; D, male FWs; E, male supra anal plate; F, male subgenital plate; G – H, hind femur, colouration pattern of inner (G) and outer (H) sides, scale 1 mm.

FIGURE 5. Kempiola flavipunctatus Desutter-Grandcolas n. sp. A, male stridulatory file (male fn LD 119), SEM image, scale 100 µm; B – D, male genitalia, dorsal (B), ventral (C), lateral (D). Abbreviations, inv, invagination between pseudepiphallic sclerite and epi-ectophallic invagination; others see text. Scale 1 mm.