Parapentacentrus formosanus Shiraki, 1930

He, Zhixin & Ma, Libin, 2021, Crickets of the subfamily Itarinae Shiraki, 1930 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae) from China with description of a new species and distribution and critical notes on other species, Zootaxa 4942 (3), pp. 382-408 : 402

Parapentacentrus formosanus Shiraki, 1930

Parapentacentrus formosanus Shiraki, 1930: 224 ; Gorochov, 1985: 19; Ma, 2011: 97; Ichikawa, et al., 2000: 273

Pseuditara lineaticeps Chopard, 1969: 317 , synonymized by Ichikawa, et al., 2000: 273

Holotype information. Type locality: China: Taiwan , Arisan (April?), Musha (May?, June?). Deposited in National Taiwan University.

Material not examined.

Remarks. Shiraki primarily described and illustrated coloration and many characters that are possessed by most species of the genus, and, especially, he did not study and aspects of male genitalia ( Shiraki, 1930). Thus, subsequent researchers could only identify the species by coloration and the minor considerations of ovipositor length ( Gorochov, 1997). In 2000, the male genitalia of this species were illustrated, meanwhile, P. lineaticeps was placed as junior synonym of P. formosanus ( Ichikawa et al., 2000) . Although no one disputes this conclusion ( Cigliano et al., 2020; Gorochov, 2008), we still have some questions based on this species as follows: (1) Illustrations of the genitalia, were not accompanied by which specimen was used and where it collected from. Thus, we question whether the specimen used for genitalia drawing of P. formosanus is the type or the material collected from the type locality; (2) Regarding synonymous relationship between P. formosanus and P. lineaticeps , no explanation for this change was proveded. We discovered that the the examined type specimen of P. lineaticeps is female (Female, Myanmar, Nam Tisang, alt. 3000 ft., NHM, Kingdon Ward) ( Ichikawa et al., 2000), thus we surmise this combination was based solely on external features and in all probability the primary character was coloration. Indeed, after examining specimens collected from Fujian (adjacent to Taiwan), Guangxi and Hongkong (adjacent to Vietnam and Guangzhou), and Xizang (adjacent to Myanmar), we found all the males possessed similar genitalia and had two colour morphs, light brown or dark brown. Based on our experience in the field, we conclude most individuals are one species and with two coloration morphs since we collected them in same time and same place. We feel that only one species is involved.