Lebinthus villemantae, Robillard, Tony, 2010

Robillard, Tony, 2010, New species of the genus Lebinthus (Orthoptera, Grylloidea, Eneopterinae, Lebinthini) from Indonesia and the Solomon Islands, Zootaxa 2386, pp. 25-48 : 43-47

Lebinthus villemantae n. sp.

( Figs 1 G, 3G, 4G, 6D, 7D, 8J–L, 10D–F, 11, 12, 13)

Type material. Holotype male: Indonesia: Province Sulawesi Selatan: Sulawesi Selatan, Mont Bulu Saraung, Pos 5, forêt de pente, espace dégagé en bord de piste, litière, 20-VIII-2007, jour (T. Robillard), adulte en élevage ( MZB Orth). Allotype female: same locality as HT, 31-VIII-2007, jour (C. Villemant), adulte en élevage ( MZB). Paratypes (183, 5Ƥ): Indonesia: Province Sulawesi Selatan: same locality, date and collector as AT, 73, 2Ƥ, adultes en élevage ( MZB); 93 (recorded), 2Ƥ, adultes en élevage (MNHN-ENSIF 2572-2582). Sulawesi Selatan, région de Malawa, forêt humide au-dessus de Boto Siri, sentier longeant ruisseau, litière, 25-VIII-2007, jour (T. Robillard), 13, 1Ƥ ( MZB); 13 (MNHN-ENSIF2583).

Type locality. Indonesia, Sulawesi Selatan, Mount Bulu Saraung.

Etymology. Species dedicated to the French hymenopterologist Dr. Claire Villemant (MNHN).

Other material examined. Indonesia: Province Sulawesi Selatan: Sulawesi Selatan, Mont Bulu Saraung, Pos 5, forêt de pente, espace dégagé en bord de piste, litière, 20-VIII-2007, jour (T. Robillard), 12 juveniles (7 in alcohol) (MNHN-ENSIF 2591-2596); 30 juveniles ( MZB); 31-VIII-2007, jour (C. Villemant), 83, 4Ƥ (MNHN-ENSIF 2567-2571, 2584-2590), 6 juveniles ( MZB).

Distribution. Indonesia, South Sulawesi.

Diagnosis. Species of small size, slightly smaller and darker than Lebinthus truncatipennis , and differing from L. truncatipennis and L. makilingus by male genitalia and details of colouration.

Description. Size small. Colouration variable, most often dark brown with more or less contrasted colour patterns ( Fig. 11 ). Head dorsum with 4–6 wide dark brown longitudinal bands more or less distinct, with a yellow band posterior to eyes prolonging their colouration and underlined by black pattern. Eyes well protruding, black with a yellow longitudinal band dorsally. Fastigium wider than long, setose, brown with a dark spot behind median ocellus, yellow. Scapes yellow; antennae yellow at base then progressively dark brown. Upper part of front head yellow. Black mask including lower part of front head, region below antennae and eyes, base of mandibles and upper part of clypeus; epistomal suture yellowish brown; yellow to whitish colouration around the mask, including parts of jaws and lower parts of mandibles and clypeus. Palpi whitish with dark brown rings. Pronotum: Dorsal disk slightly trapezoidal, straight posteriorly; generally dark brown, lighter laterally. Lateral lobes dorsally black, ventral margin yellow with a black line ( Fig. 3 G). Legs: Fore and mid legs light brown, femora with dark brown spots, tibiae with dark rings. Hind femora brown, with striated dark patterns on outer faces, 3–5 black spots on each ventral edge, knees dark brown; hind tibiae with black rings, distal half of tarsomeres III-1 black. Hind tibiae with 6–12 inner (m = 7.9, n = 10) and 10–13 outer (m = 11.3, n = 10) spines above spurs and 4–5 inner (m = 4.3, n = 10) and 4–7 outer (m = 5.4, n = 10) spines between spurs. Tarsomeres III-1 with 3–4 spines on dorsal outer edges (m = 3.4, n = 10) and 0–2 (m = 1.3, n=8) on outer faces. Abdomen homogeneously brown dorsally, yellowish brown ventrally with sometimes a median dark brown band. Cerci yellowish brown basally, with black rings near apex.

Male: FW not reaching abdomen midlength. FW colouration: Cells and veins brown, not translucent; intermedian area whitish, except for dark brown veins; lateral field brown, its dorsal margin (MA/R area) dark brown. FW venation ( Fig. 1 G): 1A angle wide (>100°); stridulatory file with 198–213 teeth (m = 203, n = 4), located on transverse part of 1A only. CuP visible at FW basis only. Harp wide, including a false mirror, i.e. a distinctive rounded area delimited by the strong harp vein, polyfurcated anteriorly, and fused with both diagonal vein and CuA posteriorly. Distal part of CuA weak and curved inwards, surrounding the median fold. Distal part of diagonal vein very weak. Longitudinal veins very strong at apex, transverse veins very weak. Mirror (d1) not differentiated. Apical field absent, with no bifurcation of CuA posterior to diagonal vein. Lateral field with 5 strong longitudinal veins including MA, R and 3 more ventral veins; latero-dorsal angle made by MP; R without strong bifurcating veins. Subgenital plate elongate, clog-shaped ( Fig. 4 G).

Male genitalia ( Fig. 10 D–F): Pseudepiphallic sclerite triangular, convex dorsally; posterior apex with short individualized lophi, setose, parallel and separated by a V-shaped indentation; anterior margin slightly indented, its lateral margins slightly curved dorsally. Rami short. Pseudepiphallic parameres trilobate, the posterior lobe dorsal, the two other lobes ventral, the median one rectangular. Ectophallic arc complete, narrow, very close to basis of pseudepiphallic parameres. Ectophallic fold short and wide, with a wide preapical sclerotization including a rounded part and two anterior expansions laterally. Ectophallic apodemes parallel and very long, exceeding anterior margin of pseudepiphallus. Endophallic sclerite very long, exceeding anterior margin of pseudepiphallus, dorsally convex, its posterior apex with a median triangular expansion and with short lateral arms; endophallic apodeme made of a narrow median crest.

Female: FW short ( Fig. 6 D), exceeding posterior margin of second tergite, not overlapping but close together; dorsal field with 5 strong longitudinal veins, brown. Lateral field darker than dorsal field, with 3–4 strong dark brown longitudinal veins, intermedian area whitish as in male. Ovipositor shorter than hind femora; apex lanceolate, denticulate on dorsal edge ( Fig. 7 D).

Female genitalia: Copulatory papilla ( Fig. 8 J–L) with small basal sclerotized ring; apical part narrowed and long, slightly plicate ventrally and sclerotized at apex.

Juvenile: Similar to adults in colouration, dark brown ( Fig. 12 ).

Measurements. see Table 1 .

Habitat and life history traits. L. villemantae lives in the leaf litter of forested areas ( Fig. 12 ). It is found in dense populations in wet leaf litter, generally on or under large dead leaves.

Behaviour. Only 3 adult specimens were observed in the field, by day in leaf litter in Malawa region, South Sulawesi. Singing activity was recorded in laboratory mostly during night period, but sexual activity seems to occur during both day and night. Mating behaviour has been observed in laboratory; multiple copulations have been recorded and will be described in a forthcoming paper (Robillard et al. in prep.).

Calling song ( Fig. 13 ; Table 2 ): Five males recorded in laboratory at 18–26 °C are analysed here. The calling song consists of a succession of short echemes of 1.8 ± 0.1 s emitted every 47.1 ± 19 s, with a duty cycle of 3.8%. At 20°C each echeme is made of 99.5 ± 10.6 syllables, with the following characteristics: syllable rate = 58.7 ± 3.8 /s; syllable duration = 7.2 ± 1.9 ms; syllable period = 17.5 ± 4.1 ms; syllable duty cycle = 41.1%; the dominant frequency is 20.1 ± 2.3 kHz and corresponds to the fundamental frequency of the song.

Courtship song: Less intense and shorter than calling song.

Aggressive song: Not observed despite many observations of male interactions. This song is probably absent from the species repertoire.

Specimens T°C Echeme Syllable The field work in South Sulawesi was organised by Louis Deharveng (MNHN), Anne Bedos (MNHN) and Yayuk Suhardjono (LIPI), with a grant from the PPF "État et structure phylogénétique de la biodiversité actuelle et fossile", MNHN (P. Janvier). I thank Claire Villemant (MNHN) for helping collecting crickets in Sulawesi. I also thank Simon Poulain (CNRS) for preparation of the specimens, Constance Boitard for specimen measurements, Gilbert Hodebert (MNHN) for habitus drawings and Laure Desutter-Grandcolas for helpful comments on the manuscript. I also thank: Judith Marshall and George Beccaloni (BMNH), for their help during the study of Eneopterinae crickets in the Natural History Museum, London, funded by the SYNTHESYS European program (GB-TAF-531); Rob de Vries and Caroline Pepermans (RMNH) for their help during the study in Leiden collections, funded by a grant from the PPF "État et structure phylogénétique de la biodiversité actuelle et fossile", MNHN (P. Janvier).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Male FW venation in dorsal view of: A, Lebinthus ambonensis n. sp.; B, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; C, Lebinthus cyclopus n. sp.; D, Lebinthus kolombara n. sp.; E, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; F, Lebinthus truncatipennis; G, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Abbreviations, see Material and methods. Dotted lines correspond to folds; dotted parts correspond to areas of light colouration. Colours: red, harp area; yellow, c 1 cell (s); orange, end of C alignment; green, mirror (d 1 cell (s )), blue, d 2 cell (s); cream, rest of D alignment. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 3. Cheek, lateral lobe of pronotum and lateral field of male FW of: A, Lebinthus ambonensis n. sp.; B, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; C, Lebinthus cyclopus n. sp.; D, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; E, Lebinthus kolombara n. sp.; F, Lebinthus truncatipennis; G, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 4. Male subgenital plate of: A, Lebinthus ambonensis n. sp.; B, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; C, Lebinthus cyclopus n. sp.; D, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; E, Lebinthus kolombara n. sp.; F, Lebinthus truncatipennis; G, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 6. Female FW venation of: A, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; B, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; C, Lebinthus truncatipennis; D, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Dotted areas represent patterns of white or yellow areas. Black arrows show the posterior limit of first abdominal tergite. Abbreviations, see Material and methods. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 7. Apex of ovipositor in lateral view of: A, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; B, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; C, Lebinthus truncatipennis; D, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 8. Female copulatory papilla in dorsal, ventral and lateral views of: A – C, Lebinthus buruensis n. sp.; D – F, Lebinthus greensladei n. sp.; G – I, Lebinthus truncatipennis; J – L, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 10. Male genitalia of: A – C, Lebinthus truncatipennis; D – F, Lebinthus villemantae n. sp.; in dorsal (A, D), ventral (B, E) and lateral (C, F) views. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 11. Lebinthus villemantae n. sp., male habitus, holotype. Scale bar: 5 mm.

FIGURE 12. Lebinthus villemantae n. sp.: A, B, habitat, in Bulu Saraung mount, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia; C, male, in Malawa region, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia; D, E, juvenile specimens, in Bulu Saraung mount, Sulawesi Selatan, Indonesia.

FIGURE 13. Calling song of Lebinthus villemantae n. sp.: A, oscillogram showing 3 successive echemes; B, spectrogram (relative amplitude); C, detailed oscillogram of an echeme; D, detailed oscillogram of a syllable; E, detailed sonogram of an echeme. Symbols: f 1 – f 4, first (fundamental) to fourth harmonic frequencies.