Pteropera Karsch, 1891

Yetchom Fondjo, Jeanne Agrippine, Nzoko Fiemapong, Armand Richard, Tindo, Maurice, Duressa, Tarekegn Fite, Ivković, Slobodan & Husemann, Martin, 2024, Taxonomic review of the grasshopper genus Pteropera Karsch, 1891 (Orthoptera, Acrididea, Catantopinae) with description of three new species and a preliminary phylogeny of the Cameroonian species, ZooKeys 1216, pp. 219-264 : 219-264

Genus Pteropera Karsch, 1891

Pteropera Karsch, 1891: 185 (type species: Pteropera verrucigena Karsch, 1891, by original monotypy); Kirby 1910: 473; Ramme 1929: 358–360; Johnston 1956: 291; Sjöstedt 1931: 28–29; Johnston 1968: 239; Dirsh 1965: 338–339; Donskoff 1981: 33–88; Otte 1995: 331–333; Yetchom Fondjo et al. 2019: 317.

Diagnosis.

Of medium size (22.5 mm; 30.0 mm); integument moderately rugous dorsally and smooth ventrally; body and legs with inconspicuous hairs; antennal organ on the fifth segment before the apex; frons oblique (~ 45 °); frontal ridge slightly curved, depressed near the median ocelli, with parallel carinae; fastigium of vertex short, triangular to hexagonal, more or less elongated, with the upper area very small, almost flat above; interocular distance narrower than or equal to the antennal scape; eyes large, globular, oval in profile, bean-shaped in dorsal view; ocelli large; pronotum cylindrical in cross-section at the typical groove, crossed by three transverse furrows; median carina faintly visible, lateral carina absent; metazona twice shorter than the prozona; anterior margin always notched, posterior margin excurved or notched; prosternal tubercle subconical, prominent, elevated, isolated; mesosternal lobes rounded. Tegmina lobiform, 3 × longer than its width, covering the larger tympanum; wings less developed. Last article of the anterior and medial tarsi longer than the other two combined; Hind femur longer than wide; chevrons continuous and rounded in the outer median area; upper carinae serrate; upper basal lobe larger than the lower; hind tibia shorter than the femur, slightly S-curved, external apical spine absent, 8–10 spines on each upper margin; last tarsal segment as long as the other two combined; arolium larger and longer than the spurs. Supra-anal plate triangular, elongated; cerci slightly curved, conical, acute or truncated, sometimes with internal preapical lobules; male subgenital plate short, conical, or truncated; valves of ovipositor narrow, with curved apices, lower valves with small or no lateral projection; male genitalia: epiphallus bridge-shaped; bridge usually short, straight or arched, curved forward, reinforced in the vertical plane by a tubercle-like thickening and as prominent downwards as the lateral plates; ancorae short; lophi plate-shaped, aligned or forming an angle greater than 70 °, posterior process not very prominent; oval sclerites small, rounded to subtriangular; cingulum horseshoe-shaped; rami of the cingulum not curved ventrally; ectophallus with two lower and two upper spiculated sheaths; intromission organ of aedeagus having four sclerotized blades and two upper spiculated sheaths; lower valves typically shorter than upper ones.