Afroagraecia flava, Hemp & Heller, 2019

Hemp, Claudia & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2019, New Agraeciini species from the Eastern Arc Mountains, East Africa (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Conocephalinae; Agraeciini), Zootaxa 4664 (3), pp. 301-338 : 318-320

Afroagraecia flava n. sp. Hemp C.

( Figs. 24–25 , 40 , 42 , Table 1 )

Holotype male. Tanzania, Udzungwa Mountains National Park , Gologolo Mountains, montane forest, February 2018. Depository: collection C. Hemp.

Description. Male. General coloration: brown to yellowish brown with faint dark median fascia from head over disc of pronotum ( Fig. 24 A, C ). Face uniformly yellowish to reddish brown ( Fig. 24 D ), tawny with reddish tinge in preserved specimen. Head and antennae. Fastigium verticis conical, strongly laterally compressed, shorter than scapus, green at ventral side. Antennae much longer than body. Thorax. Pronotum with almost smooth surface but densely covered by darker dots. Anterior margin and rear margin of lateral lobes tinged with green, remaining part brownish-yellowish with faint median dark fascia along dorsal side of pronotum. Prosternum bispinose; meso- and metasterna unarmed. Tegmina and wings shortened, reaching to end of abdominal tergite 4; stridulatory area distinctly projecting ( Fig. 25 C ). Stridulatory file on underside of left tegmen nearly straight and flat, broader in middle and narrowing towards its ends, about 1.2 mm long with roughly 200 densely set teeth (n=1). Mirror area as in Fig. 25 D . Legs. Fore coxa with well developed rather stout spine. Fore femora with two stout black outer ventral spines unarmed on inner side. Mid and hind femora with three stout and black outer ventral spines, unarmed on inner side. Abdomen. Tenth abdominal tergite broad with median suture and incurved thus forming two lobes ( Fig. 25 A ). Supra-anal plate small. Male cerci with broad base, whitish and densely hairy. At inner base comparatively long inner spine, sclerotized with black acute tips. Posterior ends of male cerci divided into three spines, a blunt inner one and two long curved outer ones, all three spines sclerotized ( Fig. 25 A ). Subgenital plate as in Fig. 25 B , elongated with v-shaped median incision and short styli.

Female. Unknown.

Measurements, male (mm) (N = 1). Body length 31.4. Length of pronotum 7.9. Length of elytra 12.5. Length of hind femur 16.6.

Song. The male produced relatively short (duration a few seconds) sequences of syllables (SRR ca. 25 Hz). See Fig. 40 , 42 and Table 1 for details.

Diagnosis. A comparatively large species with shortened tegmina that reach abdominal tergite 4 and thus distin- guished from species with tegmina that are about body length or longer ( A. sansibara ( Redtenbacher, 1891) , A. pwania Hemp & Ingrisch, 2013 , A. shimbaensis Hemp, 2013 , A. kisarawe Hemp, 2017 , A. mangula Hemp, 2017 , A. nguruen- sis n. sp., A. jozani n. sp., and A. bifurcata n. sp.). Distinguished by A. panteli (Karny, 1907) and A. bloyeti (Brongniart, 1897) by longer tegmina since in the first two listed species the tegmina reach or hardly reach abdominal tergite 2 in males. A. panteli and A. bloyeti are also of much more fragile habitus and not as stout and large as A. flava n. sp. In the same mountains range A. mangula occurs. However, this species is typical for lowland forest not collected above submontane elevations up to now while A. flava . n. sp. was found in montane forest. A. brachyptera Hemp & Ingrisch, 2013 , though a bit smaller and less stout in appearance than A. flava n. sp., also has abbreviated tegmina. However, the tegmina hardly reach the posterior margin of abdominal tergite 2. Further A. brachyptera has a conspicuous dark tri-angle shaped fascia on the face while the face in A. flava n. sp. is uniformly yellow-reddish brown.

Habitat: In understorey vegetation of montane forest.

Distribution. Tanzania, Udzungwa Mountains National Park, Gologolo Mountains.

Etymology. Named after the overall yellow colouration from Latin— flavus = yellow.

Remarks. Although we screened the area were the single male specimen of A. flava n. sp. was collected several times no further individuals of this species could be obtained. This indicates that A. flava n. sp. is probably a rare species and seems to be restricted to highest elevations of the Gologolo Mountains.

Figures

FIGURE 24. Afrograecia flava n. sp. A–D. Male, lateral view (A, B), semilateral view (C) and face (D).

FIGURE 25. Afroagraecia flava n. sp., male holotype A. 10th abdominal tergite, rear view B. Subgenital plate C. Left tegmen with stridulatory file D. Right tegmen, mirror area.

FIGURE 40. Oscillograms of the calling song of Afroagraecia species.

FIGURE 42. Power spectra of the calling song of Afroanthracites, Afroagraecia and Dendrobia species. In A. guttatus the restricted frequency range is marked by a black line at its end.