Pterotettix belphegor ( Serville, 1838 )

Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., Quintana-Arias, Ronald Fernando, Infante, Ivette Coque, Silva, Daniela Santos Martins & Tavares, Gustavo Costa, 2025, Studies on pygmy grasshoppers: On the current Metrodorinae sensu lato classification (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with emphasis on American and Malagasy taxa, Zootaxa 5597 (1), pp. 1-265 : 231-232

Pterotettix belphegor ( Serville, 1838)

( Fig. 157 )

Tetrix belphegor Serville, 1838: 760 . Holotype. Female. MADAGASCAR. Depository : MNHN.

Tetticerus belphegor : Kirby, 1910: 23.

Pterotettix humilis Günther, 1939: 188 . Syntypes. Males. MADAGASCAR: Antsiranana: Diego Suarez. Depository: MNHN. syn. nov.

Pterotettix alluaudi Günther, 1939: 189 . Holotype. Female. MADAGASCAR: Antsiranana: Diego Suarez. Depository: MNHN. syn. nov.

Remarks. Pterotettix humilis is a synonym of Pterotettix belphegor . Both species morphologically match each other, a suspicion initially raised by Günther (1939) and later confirmed by the same author ( Günther, 1974). However, the synonymy was not officially recognized, and it was interpreted as if the synonymy had been established under P. humilis , which is the opposite. We made it official here to clarify the status of both taxa ( Fig. 157 ). Pterotettix alluaudi Günther, 1939 , has been considered valid, but Günther (1974) suggests that it could be a brachypronotal form of P. andrei . However, with further examination of the species, P. alluaudi is considered a synonym of P. belphegor , being similar in measurements and varying in the undulation of the midline of the pronotal disk and the apex of the lower margins of the lateral lobes, which can be variable in some pygmy grasshopper species ( Zha et al., 2016).

Genus Tetticerus Hancock, 1900 , stat. resurr.

Tetticerus Hancock, 1900: 2 .

Pterotettix : Günther, 1939: 186.

Type species: Tetticerus bigibbosus Hancock, 1900 , by original monotypy.

Remarks. This genus was synonymized by Günther (1939) under Pterotettix by comparing the descriptions of both taxa, he found no differences, especially in the comparison between Pterotettix andrei and Amorphopus simplex . In this contribution, both genera were revisited and separated by the characters mentioned in the key to genera of Pterotettigini trib. nov., differentiated by characters of the head and pronotum. The lappets of the hind femora are most conspicuous in Tetticerus stat. resurr. than in Pterotettix .

Species included. Tetticerus bigibbosus Hancock, 1900 .

Figures

FIGURE 157. Pterotettix belphegor (Serville, 1838). Syntype female of Pterotettix humilis Günther, 1939 syn. nov. A. Habitus in lateral view. B. Habitus in dorsal view. C. Frons. D. Labels. Photos: S. Ingrisch.