Velarifictorus yuanilandrevus Wang & Ma, 2023

Wang, Ning, Huang, Huateng & Ma, Li-Bin, 2023, Redescription of two species and a new distribution record for China of the genus Melanogryllus Chopard, 1961 and a report of one new species of the genus Velarifictorus Randell, 1964 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae; Gryllinae), Zootaxa 5360 (2), pp. 269-278 : 275-277

Velarifictorus yuanilandrevus Wang & Ma sp. nov.

Chinese name: ÊƂżflē

Figs. 1 ; 4B ; 6 ; 7

Type materials. Holotype. China: Male, Longling , Yunnan, 7-vi-2023, Ning Wang coll. ( SNNU) . Paratypes. 3 females, Longling , Yunnan, 7-vi-2023, Ning Wang coll. ( SNNU) .

Etymology. The etymology of "yuan-" comes from the surname of Prof. Yuan Feng, whose 90th birthday will be celebrated next year, and we would like to honor his contribution to insect taxonomy by naming this species with this name. The etymology of “landrev-” is the beginning of the word Landrevinae , which is used to indicate that this species is similar to the Landrevinae in appearance.

Description. Male. Vertex full and broad; occiput without hair and distinctly wider than the pronotum. Eyes slightly protruding, ovoid. Three ocelli in a triangular arrangement. The lateral ocelli relatively large and rounded, and the median ocellus shaped as a triangular. The frontal rostrum broad, about twice wider than the scape of antennae. Anteclypeus triangular in shape with a notch at the middle; postclypeus shaped as a wide band. Labial palpus three, the length of the third approximately equal to the length of the first two segments; maxillary palpus five, the length of the fifth almost equal to the third, and slightly longer than the fourth. Pronotum distinctly narrower, and densely covered with short hairs, and both anterior and posterior margins straight. Forewings broad, reaching to the end of the abdomen. Three oblique veins, slightly curved; three chord veins, the outer one straight and others curved. The diagonal vein slightly curved, with only one transverse vein between it and the chord vein. Mirror shaped as an inclined rectangular, dividing vein curved and forked at the end. The apical field short and divided into several irregular cells. Anterior tibiae with outer tympanum elongate-oval and the inner one absent. Posterior femora developed and approximately equal to body length. Three inner apical spurs, the ventral one half the length of the other two, and three outer apical spurs, the middle one twice longer than the other two. Cercus longer than the abdomen.

Male genitalia. Epiphallus bridge-shaped; the notch of the anterior of epiphallus width; posterior margin armed with short setae and with a medial process, which short and slightly concaved at the middle, and about half width of epiphallus. The lateral lobe wide; the apical part bearing a dorsal carina and covered with long setae. The posterior margin of the ectoparamere armed with teeth and inwardly curved. The middle of the ectoparamere expanded; the anterior contracted and forked; the outer branch curled and tubular and the inner needle-like.

Female. Mandibula more reduced and forewings shorter than the males. The length of the ovipositor about 1.5 times of body length and the cercus almost as long as the body.

Coloration. Ocelli and inner of the posterior femora white; abdomen brown. The rest of the body black.

Measurements. Male (n=1). BL 14.64, HL 2.48, HW 4.94, PL 3.54, PW 5.28, FWL 8.62, HFL 11.71. Female (n=2). BL 11.41–11.70, HL 1.94–2.43, HW 4.06–4.14, PL 2.31–2.86, PW 4.07–4.18, FWL 2.61–2.95, HFL 8.66– 9.53.

Remarks. The new species is very similar to V. zhengi . The heads of both species are black, without brown bands, and their males having shorter apical field of forewings and females short-winged. This new species is distinguished from V. zhengi by the fact that the head of this new species is significantly wider than the pronotum, and the legs are all black. The middle lobe of the epiphallus of the new species wider than V. zhengi . The middle of the ectoparamere of the new species is distinctly swelling. Ma, et al. (2019) reported a species distributed in Yunnan that has no brown bands on the head and the body similar to the new species. However, this species has chocolatecolored legs and no expansion in the middle of the ectoparamere, which is distinctly different from the new. The posterior margin of the middle lobe of the epiphallus is broad in both the new species and V. gradifrons , but the ectoparamere of the two species are distinctly different. Therefore, we consider this species should be treated as a species new to science.

Figures

FIGURE 1. Distributions of the known Chinese species of Melanogryllus and Velarifictorus yuanilandrevus sp. nov.

FIGURE 4. Habitus in field. A. M. chopardi; B. V. yuanilandrevus sp. nov.

FIGURE 6. Bodies of V. yuanilandrevus sp. nov. A. male; B. female. Scale bars: 10 mm.

FIGURE 7. Genitalia of V. yuanilandrevus sp. nov. A. dorsal view; B. lateral view; C. ventral view.