Troglophilus brevicauda, : US, 1970

Karaman, Ivo, Hammouti, Nasera, Pavićević, Dragan, Kiefer, Andreas, Horvatović, Mladen & Seitz, Alfred, 2011, The genus Troglophilus Krauss, 1879 (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae) in the west Balkans, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 163 (4), pp. 1035-1063 : 1047-1048

TROGLOPHILUS BREVICAUDA: US, 1970

Material examined: See Appendix.

Diagnosis: Medium to large sized species. Male body length ranges between 14–21 mm; females, 14.5– 22 mm. Body colour dark brown to light brown marbled, rarely light testaceous. Male tenth tergite distal margin with wide, broadly rounded medial protrusion ( Fig. 12A ), separated by narrow more or less deep incision in two lobes. Female tenth abdominal tergite with slightly shallow excavated margin ( Fig. 12B ). Titillator is well sclerotized, long and slender, arched, and acute at the apex ( Fig. 12C ). Ovipositor elongated and narrow, length ranges between 10.5–13.5 mm; the widest point is in its proximal third ( Fig. 12E ), ventral margin almost straight.

Distribution: This species was originally described from the small cave Schelmenloch, south of Vienna, and it is of Dinaric origin. It is distributed from Lombardy and Vienna in the north-west, across Dinarids and Šar-Pindus mountain system, to central Greece in the south-east (Oiti Mt. after Willemse, 1984) ( Fig. 13 ). It is completely absent from southern and eastern Serbia, from Bulgaria, and eastern Macedonia.

Remarks: Across its distribution range, the species is sympatric with all other species of the genus Troglophilus . At some localities in western Macedonia it occurs sympatrically with T. lazaropolensis and T. zorae sp. nov.

By examination of the holotype and specimens collected from the type locality, we concluded that T. bukoviki is a junior synonym of T. cavicola .

Figures

Figure 12. A–C, Troglophilus cavicola: A, male 18 mm, tenth tergite, dorsal view (Bjeloševina, Montenegro); B, female 18.5 mm, tenth tergite, dorsal view (Bukovik, Macedonia); C, male 18 mm, phallus with titillator (arrow), lateral view (Bjeloševina, Montenegro). D–I ovipositor, lateral view: D, Troglophilus lazaropolensis, female 16.5 mm (Lazaropole, Macedonia); E, Troglophilus cavicola, female 18.5 mm (Bjeloševina, Montenegro); F, Troglophilus zorae sp. nov., paratype female 18 mm (Matka, Macedonia); G, Troglophilus brevicauda, female 15 mm (Olovo, Bosnia); H, Troglophilus ovuliformis, female 19.5 mm (D. Seoca, Montenegro); I, Troglophilus neglectus, female 15 mm (N. Breznica, Macedonia).

Figure 13. The geographical distribution of Troglophilus cavicola (square – literature data). (ITA-Italy; A-Austria; SLO-Slovenia; CRO-Croatia; BIH-Bosnia and Herzegovina; SRB-Serbia; MNE-Montenegro; BUL-Bulgaria; ALB-Albania; MK-Macedonia; GRE-Greece).