Scelimeninae Bolívar, 1887

Skejo, Josip, Pushkar, Taras I., Kasalo, Niko, Pavlović, Marko, Deranja, Maks, Adžić, Karmela, Tan, Ming Kai, Rebrina, Fran, Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Japir, Razy, Chung, Arthur Y. C. & Tumbrinck, Josef, 2022, Spiky pygmy devils: revision of the genus Discotettix (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) and synonymy of Discotettiginae with Scelimeninae, Zootaxa 5217 (1), pp. 1-64 : 9

Subfamily Scelimeninae Bolívar, 1887

Discotettiginae : Steinmann 1970, Storozhenko 2013, Tumbrinck 2014, syn. n.

Discotettigiae: Hancock 1907a, Hancock 1907b, Willemse 1930, Günther 1938, syn. n.

Discotettinae: Otte 1997, Mahmood et al. 2007, syn. n.

Discotettigidae: Liang et Zheng 1998, Zheng 2005, Deng et al. 2007, syn. n.

Notes. Herewith proposed definition of Scelimeninae is different from recent literature. Bolívar (1887) created the section (now subfamily) to include all Tetrigidae species with outwardly directed spines. Günther (1938) defined two groups within Scelimeninae —1) “Scelimenae verae” to include what are now Scelimeninae , i.e., the genera related to the type genus Scelimena , and 2) “Scelimenae spuriae” to include genera with lateral spines that are not closely related to the genus Scelimena . These “Scelimenae spuriae” are what we know today as tribes Criotettigini and Thoradontini. Kevan (1966) was the one to create the tribes Scelimenini , Thoradontini, Discotettigini , and Criotettigini. Thoradontini and Criotettigini were already then ( Kevan 1966) defined as tribes for the taxa from the heterogeneous genera of section “Scelimenae spuriae”. Adžić et al. (2020) confirmed the existence of two related tribes, Thoradontini and Criotettigini, which do not belong to Scelimeninae . The current definition of Discotettigini is very different from the Kevan’s (1966) definition, which was unfortunately based on a very partial list of genera by Günther (1955), so it may be regarded as the start of a highly chaotic taxonomy in Otte (1997) and later in Orthoptera Species File ( Cigliano et al. 2022). Criotettigini and Thoradontini require revision and might be synonymous. Liang & Zheng (1998) and consequent Chinese authors ignored the taxonomic treatment by Kevan (1966), which we regard as useful, as far as the genera related to the type genus are included in the tribe. Muhammad et al. (2018) provided the most recent treatment for Scelimeninae: Scelimenini , which we follow in this paper.

Composition and distribution (sensu Günther 1938, with additions from Muhammad et al. 2018). The subfamily currently counts 180 species within 23 genera. The tribe Scelimenini includes amphibious Asian and Papuan taxa with flat pronotum (genera Amphibotettix Hancock, 1906 , Euscelimena Günther, 1938 , Indoscelimena Günther, 1938 , Paramphibotettix Günther, 1938 , Platygavialidium Günther, 1938 , Scelimena Serville, 1838 , Tagaloscelimena Günther, 1938 , and Tefrinda Bolívar, 1906 ), while the tribe Discotettigini stat. resurr. gathers Asian and Papuan corticolous taxa with undulated pronotum (genera Austrohancockia Günther, 1938 , Bidentatettix Zheng, 1992 , Disconius Skejo, Pushkar et Tumbrinck , gen. n. Discotettix Costa, 1864 , Eufalconius Günther, 1938 , Gavialidium Saussure, 1862 , Gibbotettix Zheng, 1992 , Kraengia Bolívar, 1909 , Paragavialidium Zheng, 1994 , Tegotettix Hancock, 1913 ). Genera Zhengitettix Liang, 1994 , Hebarditettix Günther, 1938 , Falconius Bolívar, 1898 , and Dengonius Adžić, Deranja, Franjević et Skejo, 2020 are of uncertain position within Scelimeninae , while Arulenus Stål, 1877 and Hirrius Bolívar, 1887 do not belong to this subfamily and should be removed from it, thus remaining without subfamily assignment for now.