Neduba extincta Rentz, 1977

Cole, Jeffrey A., Weissman, David B., Lightfoot, David C., Ueshima, Norihiro, Warchałowska-Śliwa, Elżbieta, Maryańska-Nadachowska, Anna & Chatfield-Taylor, Will, 2021, A revision of the shield-back katydid genus Neduba (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae: Nedubini), Zootaxa 4910 (1), pp. 1-92 : 63-64

Neduba extincta Rentz, 1977

Fig. 19 (distribution).

Common name. Extinct Shieldback.

History of recognition. Described from a single male museum specimen deposited at CAS ( Rentz 1977).

Type material. The holotype male is the only specimen known. Images of the holotype are available at OSFO ( Cigliano et al. 2020) .

Measurements. See Rentz (1977).

Distribution. Antioch Sand Dunes, Contra Costa County, California, on the western edge of the Central Valley.

Habitat. Historically known from the sandy banks of the San Joaquin River, elevation 9 m. The 55 acre Antioch Dunes National Wildlife Refuge is the only National Wildlife Refuge in the country established to protect endangered plants and insects .

Seasonal occurrence. The only known specimen was collected 1-VII-1937 ( ES Ross, CAS) .

Stridulatory file. (n = 1) length 3.2 mm, 167 teeth, tooth density 52.2 teeth/mm,

Song. Unknown.

Karyotype. Unknown.

Recognition. Description indicates large body size and absence of styli on subgenital plate. The stridulatory file tooth density places this species at the upper end of variation for the Sequoia Group. The tooth density of the single known specimen is less than the closest geographic relative, N. inversa (density 64–68 teeth/mm). The single specimen is the only Sequoia Group individual collected in the Central Valley west of the Sierra Nevada.

Notes. This species is one of four extinct North American Orthoptera species ( Hoekstra 1998) and that status has not changed; David Rentz and DBW have searched for this species at the type locality on several occasions over the last few decades, visiting during summer months when Neduba are active and using a bat detector. On no occasion were individuals found. The lack of molecular, bioacoustical, and cytogenetic characters make this species difficult to place in context of this revision, but the stridulatory file tooth density is consistent with the Sequoia Group. Minimally destructive molecular work may be undertaken in the future to place N. extincta into phylogenetic context. Among the extant Sequoia Group species, N. inversa is distributed near the San Joaquin River watershed and is therefore a possible relative, and this lineage could have colonized the western edge of the Central Valley across riparian corridors. The description of N. arborea in this work reports the only other Sierranus or Sequoia Group members known west of the Sierra Nevada. Many Neduba populations were no doubt extirpated as the eastern slope of the Coast Ranges became more arid and as humans modified the Central Valley for agriculture. In the case of the Antioch dunes, sand mining and commercial development drove extinction of this species. Thorough collecting efforts are needed in the eastern slopes of the Coast Ranges to search for possible unknown populations.

Figures

FIGURE 19. Distribution of Propsti, Castanea, Lucubrata, Sierranus, and Sequoia Group species mapping records reported in this work.