Corycoides paradoxus ( Bolivar, 1890 )

Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2019, Provisional checklist of the Tettigonioidea (Insecta: Orthoptera) from São Tomé & Príncipe with taxonomic remarks, bioacoustical data and the description of new taxa, Zootaxa 4563 (1), pp. 41-66 : 43-44

Corycoides paradoxus ( Bolivar, 1890)

( Fig. 2 A, B )

Corycoides greeffi (Krauss, 1890) syn. n.

Bolivar 1890: Corycus paradoxus Bolivar, 1890

Krauss 1890: Corycus greeffi Krauss, 1890

Corycoides paradoxus ( Bolivar, 1890) and Corycoides greeffi (Krauss, 1890) were considered to be synonymous as already stated by Redtenbacher (1892). Both species were described in the same year, but Bolivar's paper appeared in March 1890 and that of Krauss in July 1890, so C. paradoxus has priority. The holotype and only known specimen of C. paradoxus is obviously lost ( Paris 1994). Also the holotype of C. greeffi seemed to be lost, and Weidner (1966) selected a lectotype from the type series, but another specimen from the type series has been discovered in SMNS with the labels " C. greeffi Krss. Type! Fig. 5 ", “Rotas Dec. [18]86" and “Typus” ( Holstein & Ingrisch 2004).

Since the description of the species no further material has been found. We have visited the type locality of C. greeffi , the Rolas Islands, but the place is largely converted to a cocos palm plantation and the vegetation very different from that described by Greeff (1882). An inhabitant of the islands used a word like "fini"(=finished) in French as we showed him a photo of a specimen of Corycoides . Whatever it means and if he had really information about the species, it is certainly not common on the island if it should still exist there at all. Greef (1884) writes that he had heard its loud song also on the main island of São Tomé at night. Opposite to Rolas Islands we did not hear anything alike at nighttime. In ETHZ we found one specimen ( Fig. 2 A, B ), probably collected in 1970 by Vittorio Delucchi who had a mission of the International Organisation for Biological Control (IOBC) in São Tomé at that time. So at least at that time the species was not extinct. It is obviously a tree living species and difficult to catch (Greeff 1884), perhaps present in Obo National Park. The original lowland rainforest, however, may be completely destroyed almost everywhere ( Brühl, 1993).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Corycoides in São Tomé. A, B male Corycoides paradoxus, ETHZ, label B.C A.P.= Brigada de Fomento Agro- Pecuário, C female C. intermedius, holotype, NMW.

FIGURE 5. Habitus. A Adapantus excavatus n. sp., B Conocephalus iris, var. guineensis, C Brachyamytta bombomensis n. sp.