Systematics of bushcrickets (Orthoptera : Tettigoniidae: Platycleidini)

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First report of scaly cricket Arachnocephalus vestidos Costa, 1855 (Orth., Mogoplistidae) from Iran

Mid of September 2022 and the near sandy bank of Neka River in the north of Iran, a cricket was collected on prickly lettuce bushes (Lactuca serriola L.) amongst wild bushes of rubus (Lactuca serriola L.) and trees of pomegranate (Punica granatum L.). Identification through morphological taxonomic keys and comparison with previously named specimens in the Hayk Mirzayans Insect Museum (HMIM) confirmed a new record. This is the first report of the genus and species of cricket Arachnocephalus vestidos Costa, 1855 from Iran. This insect has been reported from west to southwest Palearctic so far. The specimen is deposited in HMIM of the Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (IRIPP). The detailed morphological characteristics of the family, genus and species, as well as a key to identify the genera and species of scaly crickets in Iran is provided. So far, three species of three genera belonging to Mogoplistidae are reported from Iran

Eupholidoptera mirzayani Mofidi-Neyestanak & Quicke, 2007, sp.n.

E. mirzayani sp.n. (Figs 3, 4, 6, 12, 13, 17, 23, 28, 32) Holotype: IRAN, Khuzestan, Andimeshk, Bidrubeh, Sardabeh, 32 ° 36 ' 58 '' N, 48 ° 17 ' 11 '' E, 750m, May 2001, Col. Mohsen Mofidi-Neyestanak, Ebrahim Gilasian, and Abolfazl Hajesmailian (sweep net) (HMIM). Paratypes: 2 females; same data as for holotype (1 female HMIM, 1 female BMNH). Etymology: The new species name is dedicated to the late Hayk Mirzayans, the first author’s teacher, who spent all his life studying the insect fauna of Iran and founded the HMIM. Diagnosis—differs from the type-species, E. chabrieri, as follows: Male: titillators long, arm bent forwards, base bent upwards; cerci thinner and without internal tooth; terga 9 and 10 with large and small emarginations respectively; all terga with a medial black spot posteriorly. Female: sternum 7 with a round projection medially; subgenital plate with a very narrow and deep excision. Description—male (holotype): fastigium frontal groove 0.7mm; upper fastigial width 2.0mm; pronotum length 10.4mm; metazona length 5.1mm; pronotal width at sulcus 5.4mm; both prozona least width and metazona greatest width 5.2mm; tegmina length 2.15mm; longitudinal and transversal inner diameter of speculum 1.43mm and 2.13mm respectively; number of left tegminal stridulatory pegs 124 with 49 on the middle third; fore femur 7.2mm long; hind femur 21.6mm long and 3.7mm maximally wide; subgenital plate 4.1mm long and 2.1mm wide; cercus 2.8mm long and 0.27mm wide medially; FFL 32.3mm. Head, pronotum, tegmina, abdomen, and legs are as of the type species; however, smaller. Head very slightly sloping in lateral view, lateral margins of fastigium slightly curved; fronto-fastigial groove more or less equal to the scapus. Pronotum elongated backwards, longitudinal median keel indistinct, hind margin round; discus cylindrical; sulcus distally to the middle; metazona slightly shorter than prozona, flat and without lateral edge; humeral notch indistinct. Fore tibiae with 3 dorsal, 6 anterior-ventral and 6 posterior-ventral spines. Tibial tympana slit shape, similar externally and internally. Fore femur with 3 spines anterior-ventrally; mid femur with one posteriorventral spine; hind femur with 5 internal-ventrally and 2 external-ventrally spines; hind tibiae at tip with four spurs ventrally, the internal ones shorter and the externals not markedly longer; hind metatarsal flap (pulvillus) less than 0.5 of metatarsus. Micropterous, tegmina not visible, covered fully by pronotum. Stridulatory file on the upper side of the left tegmen on a raised swelling with approximately 125 pegs, the portion with the widest pegs located medially. Wings extremely reduced. Hind margin of tergum 9 with very deep and wide Ushaped emargination dorsal-medially; hind margin of tergum 10 with small emargination and two small converging pointed lobes. Cercus slender and without apical or internal spine. Subgenital plate elongated, more or less keeled medial-longitudinally, with shallow V-shaped excision and with two medium length styles. Titillators long, arm-base angle at collar 180 °, arms with sharp ends bent towards tergum 10, without spines, slen- der, diverging, base smooth, fused half (next to the arms) not flattened and free half long, extending beyond the collar, bent upwards, rather flattened and twisted. Coloration: Frons pale yellowish-brown, with 6 dark spots, the two top ones bigger and eyebrow-shaped; clypeus with 2 dark spots; vertex with two long dark bands. Pronotum: prozona and metazona brown with black spots. Lateral lobes dark with scattered pale dark marks, ventrally and caudally with wide pale yellow bands. Tegmina pale brown. Fore and mid legs more or less pale cream-brown with scattered dark marks; hind tibiae dark at proximal seventh part; hind femur pale unicoloured with 4–5 small dark spots proximal-dorsally, dark at the distal seventh part. Abdomen: first tergum dark dorsally, other terga pale castaneous with one small black spot dorsal-medially; sterna yellow; subgenital plate dark laterally and yellow ventrally; cercus rather unicoloured pale brown. Female (paratype): Approximately the same size as male but metazona wider (5.3mm); hind femur longer (23.6mm) and wider (4.3mm); subgenital plate much shorter (3.0mm) and slightly narrower (2.0mm); cercus much shorter (2.0mm); ovipositor 18.3mm long, and FFL 33.1mm. The same shape as male except for: head, lateral view, some how more sloping. Tegmina shortened, squamiform, fully covered by pronotum, not overlapping. Wings extremely reduced. Hind edge of tergum 10 very slightly emarginated. Fore femur with 3 spines anterior-ventrally; mid femur with one posterior and one anterior spine ventrally; hind femur with 3 internal-ventrally and 4 external-ventrally spines. Cercus shorter and more fusiform than ones of male. Fifth, sixth and seventh sterna approximately equal in length, seventh modified medially with a hook-shaped protuberance. Subgenital plate without mid-longitudinal keel or groove and with very narrow excision on hind margin. Ovipositor not very wide at basal third, almost slender, straight, tip slightly up-curved, sword-shaped; gonagulum soft and smooth. Coloration: Approximately the same colour as male but the frontal spots weaker and smaller; terga with smaller and weaker dorsal-medial black spots; hind femur with shorter dark mark at apex; ovipositor pale brown, ventrally yellowish; gonagulum entirely pale cream-brown; subgenital plate without dark patterns laterally.Published as part of Mofidi-Neyestanak, Mohsen & Quicke, Donald L. J., 2007, Eupholidoptera karatolosi sp. n. and E. mirzayani sp. n. (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae), two new bushcrickets from Greece and Iran, pp. 43-53 in Zootaxa 1562 on pages 46-49, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17836

Eupholidoptera Maran 1953, sp.n.

Genus Eupholidoptera Maran, 1953 Type-species: Locusta chabrieri Charpentier, 1825 Eupholidoptera karatolosi sp.n. (Figs 1, 2, 5, 7, 14, 18, 21, 24, 25, 30) Holotype: GREECE, Ellinoprigos, 39 ° 23 ' 59 '' N, 21 ° 44 ' 8 '' E, 600m, 15 June 2005, Col. Nikolaos Karatolos (sweep net) (HMIM). Paratypes: 4 males and 2 females, same data as for holotype (1 male and 1 female BMNH; 3 males and 1 female HMIM). Etymology: The new species is named after Nikolaos Karatolos, the collector of samples. Diagnosis—differs from the type-species, E. chabrieri, as follows: Male: titillators longer, arms straight and parallel; cerci thinner, the basal tooth stronger; tergum 9 with a small emargination medially; tergum 10 deeply emarginated dorsal-medially with two posterior downwards-directed and bent blunt lobes. Female: sternum 7 with a small projection and subgenital plate with V-shaped excision. Description—male (holotype): Fastigium frontal groove 0.68mm; upper fastigial width 2.0mm; pronotum length 11.6mm; metazona length 6.6mm; pronotal width at sulcus 5.0mm; prozona least width and metazona greatest width 3.3mm and 6.5mm respectively; tegmina length 5.9mm; wing length 0.8mm; longitudinal and transversal inner diameter of speculum 2.42mm and 2.25mm respectively; tegminal stridulatory pegs 95 with 26 on the middle third; fore femur 7.5mm long; hind femur 24.9mm long and 5.0mm maximally wide; subgenital plate 3.7mm long and 2.9mm wide; cercus 3.0mm long and 0.6mm wide medially; FFL 36.1mm. Head: slightly sloping in lateral view. Lateral margins of fastigium slightly curved; fronto-fastigial groove much narrower than width of the scapus. Pronotum elongated backwards, longitudinal median keel indistinct; discus more or less flattened; sulcus located proximally to middle; metazona longer than prozona, very slightly elevated, without lateral edge, hind margin round; discus very smoothly dotted; humeral notch very shallow. Fore tibiae with 3 dorsal spines, with 6 anterior-ventral and 6 posterior-ventral spines. Tibial tympana slit shape, similar externally and internally. Fore femur armed with 3 spines anterior-ventrally; mid femur unarmed; hind femur armed with 3 spines internal-ventrally, tip with four spurs ventrally, internals shorter and externals not particularly long; hind metatarsal flap (pulvillus) slightly more than half of metatarsus length. Micropterous, tegmina slightly visible, covered mostly by pronotum. Stridulatory file on the upper side of left tegmen on a raised swelling, the portion with widest pegs proximally to the mid. Wings very small. Hind margin of tergum 9 with shallow emargination medially; hind margin of tergum 10 emarginated deeply dorsalmedially with two posterior downwards-bent-extended lobes. Cercus at distal half bent inwards, without apical spine and with strong basal internal tooth that is shorter than width of cercus at point of emerging. Subgenital plate keeled medial-longitudinally, bilobate with deep excision, with two long styles longer than half of length of subgenital plate, at base of each with a long projection ending to two sharp backwardly pointing spines. Titillators long, collar thickened, arms without spines, elongated, parallel, with sharp ends and with wrinkled surface basad, base significantly without spines, the fused half (next to arms) not thickened basad and the free half bent upwards, long and reaching to the collar. Coloration: Frons and genae pale yellowish-brown; clypeus with four dark spots; frons with four vertically-elongated spots; fastigium with horizontally-elongated dark marks laterally; vertex pale creamy brown. Prozona and metazona pale cream-brown, lateral lobes dark with scattered pale dark marks, ventrally and caudally with wide yellow bands, the caudal narrower. Tegmina brown. Fore and mid legs more or less pale cream-brown with scattered dark marks; hind tibiae dark at proximal seventh part; hind femur with dark brown feather-shaped pattern laterally, dark at distal seventh part. Tergites 1 and 10 dark dorsally, other terga pale castaneous without dark brown marks. Abdomen shiny pale brown dorsally and yellow ventrally except for subgenital plate that is dark laterally. Cercus unicoloured, black, slightly whitened distally. Female (paratype): Approximately the same size as holotype but tegmina much shorter (1.9mm); subgenital plate much longer and wider (8.8mm and 6.0mm respectively); cercus shorter and more slender (2.2mm long and 0.35mm wide medially); ovipositor length 21.4mm. Approximately the same shape as holotype but head in lateral view some how more sloping, lateral margins of fastigium more curved. Tegmina squamiform, lateral, fully covered by pronotum, overlapping. Hind margin of tergum 10 slightly emarginated, without extended posterior lobe. Cercus more slender and curved inwards than male. Fifth, sixth and seventh sterna approximately the same length, seventh sternum with very small protuberance medially. Subgenital plate without mid-longitudinal keel or groove, with very narrow deep V-shaped excision on hind margin. Ovipositor not very wide at basal third, straight, sword-shaped, tip slightly up-curved; gonagulum soft and smooth. Coloration: Similar to male but the four dark spots of head weaker; frons with four horizontally elongated spots, the lateral ones smaller. Tenth sternum darkened only laterally. Distal darkening of hind femur shorter. Hind tibiae with shorter and more indistinct proximal dark pattern. Cercus less whitened at apex and at most part dark. Ovipositor pale brown, darker at apex; gonagulum dark, distally bright.Published as part of Mofidi-Neyestanak, Mohsen & Quicke, Donald L. J., 2007, Eupholidoptera karatolosi sp. n. and E. mirzayani sp. n. (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae), two new bushcrickets from Greece and Iran, pp. 43-53 in Zootaxa 1562 on pages 45-46, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17836

Karyotypes diversity in some Iranian Pamphagidae grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acridoidea, Pamphagidae): new insights on the evolution of the neo-XY sex chromosomes

For the first time, cytogenetic features of grasshoppers from Iran have been studied. In this paper we conducted a comparative cytogenetic analysis of six species from the family Pamphagidae. The species studied belong to subfamilies Thrinchinae Stål, 1876 (Eremopeza bicoloripes (Moritz, 1928), E. saussurei (Uvarov, 1918)) and Pamphaginae (Saxetania paramonovi (Dirsh, 1927), Tropidauchen escalerai Bolívar, 1912, Tropidauchen sp., and Paranothrotes citimus Mistshenko, 1951). We report information about the chromosome number and morphology, C-banding patterns, and localization of ribosomal DNA clusters and telomeric (TTAGG)n repeats. Among these species, only S. paramonovi had an ancestral Pamphagidae karyotype (2n=18+X0♂; FN=19♂). The karyotypes of the remaining species differed from the ancestral karyotypes. The karyotypes of E. bicoloripes and E. saussurei, despite having the same chromosome number (2n=18+X0♂) had certain biarmed chromosomes (FN=20♂ and FN=34♂ respectively). The karyotypes of T. escalerai and Tropidauchen sp. consisted of eight pairs of acrocentric autosomes, one submetacentric neo-X chromosome and one acrocentric neo-Y chromosome in males (2n=16+neo-X neo-Y♂). The karyotype of P. citimus consisted of seven pairs of acrocentric autosomes, submetacentric the neo-X1 and neo-Y and acrocentric the neo-X2 chromosomes (2n=14+neo-X1 neo-X2 neo-Y♂). Comparative analysis of the localization and size of C-positive regions, the position of ribosomal clusters and the telomeric DNA motif in the chromosomes of the species studied, revealed early unknown features of their karyotype evolution. The data obtained has allowed us to hypothesize that the origin and early phase of evolution of the neo-Xneo-Y♂ sex chromosome in the subfamily Pamphaginae, are linked to the Iranian highlands

Karyotypes diversity in some Iranian Pamphagidae grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acridoidea, Pamphagidae): new insights on the evolution of the neo-XY sex chromosomes

For the first time, cytogenetic features of grasshoppers from Iran have been studied. In this paper we conducted a comparative cytogenetic analysis of six species from the family Pamphagidae. The species studied belong to subfamilies Thrinchinae Stål, 1876 (Eremopeza bicoloripes (Moritz, 1928), E. saussurei (Uvarov, 1918)) and Pamphaginae (Saxetania paramonovi (Dirsh, 1927), Tropidauchen escalerai Bolívar, 1912, Tropidauchen sp., and Paranothrotes citimus Mistshenko, 1951). We report information about the chromosome number and morphology, C-banding patterns, and localization of ribosomal DNA clusters and telomeric (TTAGG)n repeats. Among these species, only S. paramonovi had an ancestral Pamphagidae karyotype (2n=18+X0♂; FN=19♂). The karyotypes of the remaining species differed from the ancestral karyotypes. The karyotypes of E. bicoloripes and E. saussurei, despite having the same chromosome number (2n=18+X0♂) had certain biarmed chromosomes (FN=20♂ and FN=34♂ respectively). The karyotypes of T. escalerai and Tropidauchen sp. consisted of eight pairs of acrocentric autosomes, one submetacentric neo-X chromosome and one acrocentric neo-Y chromosome in males (2n=16+neo-X neo-Y♂). The karyotype of P. citimus consisted of seven pairs of acrocentric autosomes, submetacentric the neo-X1 and neo-Y and acrocentric the neo-X2 chromosomes (2n=14+neo-X1 neo-X2 neo-Y♂). Comparative analysis of the localization and size of C-positive regions, the position of ribosomal clusters and the telomeric DNA motif in the chromosomes of the species studied, revealed early unknown features of their karyotype evolution. The data obtained has allowed us to hypothesize that the origin and early phase of evolution of the neo-Xneo-Y♂ sex chromosome in the subfamily Pamphaginae, are linked to the Iranian highlands