Pachyphloea Redtenbacher, 1906

Murcia, Andres David, Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., Noriega, Jorge Ari & García, Alexander García, 2019, New species of Pachyphloea Redtenbacher, 1906 (Phasmida: Pseudophasmatidae Xerosomatinae) with comments on Grylloclonia Zompro, 2004 n. syn., Zootaxa 4623 (3), pp. 545-554 : 546-549

Genus Pachyphloea Redtenbacher, 1906

Diagnosis: Body in brown tones, robust and granular, with moderate foliaceous extensions in the legs and some species in the abdomen, mainly in tergites V to VII, more conspicuous in females than in males. Distal half of the antennae white or light brown, posterior portion of the vertex with spinose prolongations, becoming tubercles or foliate in shape, scapus and pedicellus unarmed. In dorsal view with a median line running from the anterior margin of the pronotum to the last abdominal segment, pronotum and metanotum wider than long; mesonotum longer than pronotum; metanotum longer than wide; the thorax may be armed with mid-sized spines, foliose extensions, or without any of these. Cerci in both sexes conical and very small, partially covered by tergum X in dorsal view. Subgenital plate with posterior margin rounded or triangular in females; males present variable poculum that covers the vomer completely.

Type species: Pachyphloea aberrans Redtenbacher, 1906 by original monotypy

Comments: In his taxonomic key, Zompro (2004) differentiated Pachyphloea and the Grylloclonia - Dicranoclonia Zompro, 2004 complex (synonymized under Acanthoclonia Stål, 1875 by Conle et al., 2011) based on the arrangement of lateral margins of the mesonotum and the presence/absence of a sensorial area on the prosternum. The arrangement of the lateral margins of the mesonotum however is a variable character even within species, normally with females presenting relatively broader margins of mesonotum than males. The larger size and increased robustness of these in females leads to a gradual widening of the mesothorax towards the posterior in which the posterior margin is wider than the anterior. This occurs for species of both genera, without any other notable difference between them for this character. Likewise, the sensorial area, or transverse ridge on the anterior half of the prosternun, is visible in both Pachyphloea and Grylloclonia . Additional traits that were used by Zompro (2004) to distinguish between these genera, such as the degree of development of spines and foliaceous extensions or terminalia structure, have been assessed to still serve for species recognition, albeit not to separate genera.

In view of the aforementioned characteristics, and taking intrageneric variability into account, we propose Grylloclonia Zompro, 2004 n. syn. as synonym of Pachyphloea since there are not enough diagnostic characters to differentiate the two genera.