Taxonomy and distribution of some katydids (Orthoptera Tettigoniidae) from tropical Africa

Abstract

Received 21 March 2015 | Accepted 31 August 2015 | Published 30 September 2015Results of the study of specimens collected in tropical Africa and preserved in different European collections and museums are reported and extensively illustrated. The following three new species are described: Horatosphaga aethiopica sp. n., Dapanera occulta sp. n. and Cestromoecha laeglae sp. n. In addition, new diagnostic characters or distributional data for Ruspolia differens (Serville, 1838), Thyridorhoptrum senegalense Krauss, 1877, Horatosphaga leggei (Kirby, 1909), Horatosphaga linearis (Rehn, 1910), Preussia lobatipes Karsch, 1890 and Dapanera eidmanni Ebner, 1943 are reported. Finally, Symmetropleura plana (Walker, 1869) is proposed to be transferred to the genus Symmetrokarschia Massa, 2015, Conocephalus carbonarius (Redtenbacher, 1891) to the genus Thyridorhoptrum Rehn & Hebard, 1915; the genus Gonatoxia Karsch, 1889 is proposed to be synonymized with Dapanera Karsch, 1889.This research received support from the Synthesys Project, which is financed by European Community Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Programme at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales of Madrid (CSIC) (2013) and at the Naturkundemuseum of Berlin (2014).Peer reviewe