Platycleis Fieber, 1852

Massa, Bruno & Fontana, Paolo, 2011, Supraspecific taxonomy of Palaearctic Platycleidini with unarmed prosternum: a morphological approach (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae), Zootaxa 2837, pp. 1-47 : 6

1) Platycleis Fieber, 1852 ( Figs. 1 , 48 , 78 , 106)

Characters. Head large, ratio maximum width/length of head (from vertex to clipeus): 1.3–1.4. Pronotum depressed, with clear humeral excision at ¾ of its length, median keel raised on metazona; Ƥ subgenital plate with two lobes separated by a furrow; ovipositor regularly curved upwards, compressed, ca. ½ hind femur; Ƥ VI–VII th sternites modified or not; hind femora of varied length, hind femora/pronotum length 3: 3.0–4.1, Ƥ: 3.1–4.4; 3 X th tergite with two short pointed processes. Titillators are generally uniform, the most aberrant are those of P. escalerai and P. w al th e r i (cf. Harz 1969). Colour of lateral lobes of the pronotum is greyish bordered with a white stripe.

Remarks. The shape of the pronotum is very characteristic, as well as the ovipositor and subgenital plate. Tegmina are very abbreviated in some species, which may be considered as micropterous. P. g r i s ea is generally considered a subspecies of P. albopunctata , but the evident differences in the shape of the Ƥ subgenital plate and titillators are sufficient to separate them as valid species, which in their western distribution overlap; for this reason we consider them as distinct species. Conversely, we consider P. umbilicata Costa, 1885 from Sardinia as synonym of P. intermedia . Some species considered as belonging to Platycleis , living in Caucasus and Tadzhikistan, could be better assigned to another genus (cf. below and Eades et al. 2010).

Distribution. It covers E Asia to W Europe and N Africa.

Number of species known (after Eades et al. 2010, modified): 35, including a new species from Iran below described: 1) affinis Fieber, 1853 ; 2) albopunctata (Goeze, 1778) ; 3) alexandra ( Uvarov, 1927) ; 4) burri Uvarov, 1921 ; 5) buzzettii Massa et Fontana , present paper (it probably does not belong to Platycleis ); 6) concii Galvagni, 1959 ; 7) curvicauda Podgornaya, 1988 ; 8) deminuta Fruhstorfer, 1921 ; 9) elytris Uvarov, 1910; 10) ehrmanni Harz, 1991 nomen nudum; 11) escalerai Bolivar, 1899 ; 12) falx (Fabricius, 1775) ; 13) fatima Uvarov, 1912 ; 14) grisea (Fabricius, 1781) (type species); 15) hannae Harz, 1991 nomen nudum; 16) iberica Zeuner, 1941 ; 17) iljinskii Uvarov, 1917 (it probably does not belong to Platycleis ); 18) intermedia (Serville, 1838) ; 19) irinae Sergeev et Pokivajlov, 1992 (it probably does not belong to Platycleis ); 20) kabulica Bei-Bienko, 1967 ; 21) kashmira (Uvarov, 1930) ; 22) latitabunda Stolyarov, 1968 ; 23) longicauda ( Tarbinsky, 1930) ; 24) longis Uvarov, 1910; 25) meridiana Stolyarov, 1969 (it probably does not belong to Platycleis ); 26) pamirica (Zeuner, 1930) ; 27) pathana Zeuner, 1941 ; 28) ragusai Ramme, 1927 ; 29) romana Ramme, 1927 ; 30) sabulosa Azam, 1901 ; 31) sogdiana Mishchenko, 1954 (it probably does not belong to Platycleis ); 32) speciosa † Heer, 1865; 33) trivittata Bei-Bienko, 1951 ; 34) turanica Zeuner, 1930 ; 35) waltheri Harz, 1966 .

Figures

FIGURES 1 – 10. Lateral view of the pronotum of 10 species of Platycleidini (Platycleis, Tessellana, Montana, Sardoplatycleis, Modestana, Alticolana, Parnassiana, Ariagona, Amedegnatiana).

FIGURES 48 – 63. Lateral view of the ovipositor of 16 species of Platycleidini (Platycleis, Sardoplatycleis, Sepiana, Metrioptera, Roeseliana, Bicolorana, Chizuella, Eobiana, Modestana, Sphagniana, Amedegnatiana, Alticolana, Parnassiana, Squamiana, Eumetrioptera).

FIGURES 78 – 85. Subgenital plate of the female of 8 species of Platycleidini (Platycleis, Sardoplatycleis, Tessellana, Pravdiniana, Montana, Ariagona, Eumetrioptera).