Bicolorana kraussi, Skejo, Josip, Rebrina, Fran, Tvrtković, Nikola, Gomboc, Stanislav & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2015

Skejo, Josip, Rebrina, Fran, Tvrtković, Nikola, Gomboc, Stanislav & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2015, More than a century old ‘ Platycleis Kraussi case’ finally resolved (Tettigoniidae: Platycleidini), Zootaxa 3990 (4), pp. 497-524 : 512-513

Genus Bicolorana Zeuner, 1941

Zeuner, F. E. (1941) The classification of Decticinae hitherto included in Platycleis Fieb. or Metrioptera Wesm. (Orthoptera, Saltatoria). Transactions of the Royal Entomological Society of London. 91, pp. 44, 45, Figure 26.

Species typica: Locusta bicolor Philippi, 1830 (= Bicolorana bicolor bicolor ) Philippi, R. A. (1830) Orthoptera Berolinensia. Dissertation, F. Nietack , Berlin. p. 24.

Characters (According to Massa & Fontana, 2011): Head just larger than long, ratio maximum width/length of head (from vertex to clypeus): 1.1–1.2. Tegmina are generally abbreviated, but sometimes macropterous individuals of some species are found. Pronotum flat, just depressed, borders rounded, humeral excision just evident, keel present in the metazona; ♀ subgenital plate longer than wide, attenuated to the apex and incised, at the sides not touching the ovipositor; ovipositor comparatively short and thick, bent upwards beyond the apex of the subgenital plate; ♀ VI th–VII th sternites modified or not; hind femora long and slender, hind femora/pronotum length ♂♀: 3.7–3.8; ♂ X th tergite with two apical pointed processes, cerci long and apically flattened. Colour of lateral lobes of the pronotum is greenish; the whitish stripe is indistinct.

Massa & Fontana (2011) listed three species in the genus Bicolorana : B. bicolor ( Philippi, 1830) in Eurasia (with two subspecies, B. bicolor bicolor ( Philippi, 1830) that is spread all over Eurasia, except for Mongolia where it is replaced by the second subspecies, B. bicolor angarica (Liana, 1987) , B. kuntzeni ( Ramme, 1931) distributed in N Adriatic area ( Croatia, Slovenia and Italy) and B. burri (Uvarov, 1921) known only from Caucasus Mountain in Azerbaijan.

We compared B. kraussi comb. nov. with B. bicolor and B. kuntzeni from type locality (Monte Maggiore = Učka Mountain) ( Figure 2 ), both of them occurring in Croatia, and found out that the species is identical to B. kuntzeni (see the first paragraph of Results; Comparison between Bicolorana kuntzeni and Platycleis kraussi ). We had two options, to synonymise B. kraussi with B. kuntzeni as a senior synonym or to synonymise B. kuntzeni with B. kraussi as a junior synonym. Thus, we consulted the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (further the Code) (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature (further ICZN), 1999) to take a legitimate and correct action under this case.

According to the Code (ICZN, 1999) an author is required not to displace name which has been used as valid by at least 10 authors in 25 publications during the past 50 years, and encompassing a span of not less than ten years, by an earlier synonym or homonym which has not been used as valid since 1899. Name Modestana kraussi was used five times in last 50 years—by Massa & Fontana (2011), Nadig (1987), Ragge (1990), Harz (1969) and Heller (1988). Name Bicolorana kuntzeni (and subsequent misspelling Bicoloriana kuntzeni ) was used during past 50 years by 21 authors (1.Harz, 2.Nadig 3.Heller, 4.Fontana, 5.Buzzetti, 6.Cogo, 7.Odé, 8.Nagy, 9.Galvagni, 10.Massa, 11.Kleukers, 12. Gomboc, 13. Šegula,14. Us, 15. Mikšić,16. Korsunovskaya, 17. Ragge, 18. Vedenina, 19. Willemse, 20. Zhantiev and 21. Frantsevich) during a period of more than ten years, but in only 18 publications (as Metrioptera kuntzeni , Metrioptera (Metrioptera) kuntzeni , Metrioptera (Bicolorana) kuntzeni ) ( Mikšić 1968, 1976a, 1976b, 1978, Harz 1969, Nadig 1987, Heller 1988, Us 1971, 1972, 1992, Ragge 1990, Heller et al. 1998, Fontana et al., 2002, Nagy, 2005, Galvagni, 2009, Massa & Fontana, 2011, Massa et al., 2013 and Gomboc & Šegula, 2014 a). It is important to point out that the name for Platycleis kraussi (as Platycleis kraussi , Metrioptera kraussi , Modestana kraussi , etc…) was not out of use during the last 50 years.

According to information presented above, we concluded there was no legitimate reason to conserve the name and thus we made Bicolorana kuntzeni ( Ramme, 1931) syn. nov. a subjective junior synonym of Bicolorana kraussi ( Padewieth, 1900) comb. nov. according to the Principle of Priority, Article 23.1. of the Code (ICZN, 1999).

Figures

FIGURE 2. Bicolorana kuntzeni / Platycleis kraussi general appearance (dorso-lateral habitus) A) brownish male (left) and female (right) from Francikovac (photo: N. Tvrtković), B) green male form from Učka Mt. (photo: N. Tvrtković).