Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992

Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., Quintana-Arias, Ronald Fernando, Rodríguez, Diana Marcela Tru- Jillo, Sarmiento, Juan Pablo Prias & Castellanos-Morales, Cesar A., 2022, Studies on Neotropical crickets: Aclodes paz n. sp. a new phalangopsid cricket (Orthoptera: Phalangopsidae) from the Santander caves, Colombia, Zootaxa 5141 (6), pp. 568-580 : 570

Tribe Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992

Comments. This tribe was proposed by Desutter-Grandcolas (1992), initially as the group “Aclodae”, including Aclodes Hebard, 1928 , Paraclodes Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 and Uvaroviella Chopard, 1923 . The author defines the group and suggests that two species of Heterogryllus Saussure, 1874 , H. crassicornis Saussure, 1878 , and H. bordoni Chopard, 1970 , were located in Aclodes and Paraclodes , respectively. Desutter-Grandcolas (1992), mentions that Heterogryllus only includes H. ocellaris Saussure, 1874 , represented by a female collected in Brazil, without precise locality, and that, due to its morphological characteristics, it should be included in Neoaclini (sensu Desutter 1987).

Nischk & Otte (2000) described several taxa for Ecuador, one species for Paraclodes and three species for Aclodes . Otte (2006) describes five additional species from Costa Rica. Otte & Perez-Gelabert (2009) added 16 species to Uvaroviella , distributed on several Caribbean islands. Subsequently, several taxa described by the above authors will be reassigned to other genera or synonymized, and not all species will retain their original combinations.

Gorochov (2007) proposed that the Aclodae group comprises a single genus. Uvaroviella , the oldest genus, retained generic status, the others as subgenera: four originally described as genera ( Acla Hebard, 1928 , Aclodes , Paraclodes , and Uvaroviella s.s.) and five as new subgenera ( Subacla , Euacla , Reacla , Holacla, and Topacla ). The same author adds six species in Uvaroviella s.l., and keeps this taxon in the tribe Phalangopsini ; for Paragryllini , it gives a new status, including subtribes described as tribes by Desutter (Paragryllina s.s., Neoaclina and Strogulomorphina). This contribution initiated some synonymization of taxa described by Otte and other authors ( Gorochov 2011). Gorochov (2014) proposed a classification for the Phalangopsinae subfamily group. Uvaroviella and Heterogryllus are included in the subtribe Heterogryllina (Phalangopsini) , sugesting the probable relationship between both taxa, and indicating that Aclodae is probably junior synonym of Heterogryllina ( Gorochov 2014, 2015).

Desutter-Grandcolas (2014) officially proposed Acla , as a synonym of Aclodes , something that apparently was missing in the author’s contribution of 1992, where A. crassicornis (Saussure, 1878) is included in Aclodes , without any formal nomenclatural act. Recently, Desutter-Grandcolas & Faberon (2020) revalidated and elevated Aclodini (=Aclodae) to tribal status and provided the initial opinion on the position of Heterogryllus and the non-relationship with the other Aclodini (Desutter-Grandcolas 1992). Likewise, they contrast with the Chintauan-Marquier et al. (2016) molecular study and other unpublished studies, highlighting that the Aclodini are a well-defined monophyletic clade within the Paragryllinae , thus supporting the new tribal status ( Desutter-Grandcolas 2014, Desutter-Grandcolas & Faberon 2020). Also, they morphologically redefine Aclodini , returning to the 1992 classification, assigning generic status to Aclodes and Paraclodes , and synonymizing all the subgenera proposed by Gorochov (2007). They emphasize the incomplete study of morphological characters and that monophyly was not reflected in Gorochov’s proposal (Desutter-Grandcolas & Faberon 2020).

As noted in the history of the classification of the Aclodae / Aclodini / Heterogryllina , cricket taxonomy remains in constant debate and turmoil. At the Neotropical level, it is based on the classification proposed either by Desutter-Grandcolas or Gorochov. Based on the author a tribe can be a genus or subtribe, and according to the opinion of some other authors the taxa can be in different subfamilies ( Cadena-Castañeda & Tíjaro 2020, Cadena-Castañeda & García García 2020, Cadena-Castañeda et al. 2021b).