Svistella prominens Ma, Yuan & Gu, 2025

Yuan, Wei, Wu, Jiawei, Ma, Li-Bin & Gu, Jun-Jie, 2025, Two new species of Trigonidiidae (Orthoptera: Grylloidea) from southwest China, Zootaxa 5570 (3), pp. 574-582 : 578-580

Svistella prominens Ma, Yuan & Gu sp. nov.

Chinese name: Ẅẋ唧Üḃ

( Figs. 4 , 5 , 6 )

Type material. Holotype. China: ♂, Jiange, Guangyuan , Sichuan, 18-VIII-2023, Yuan, Wei, Wang, Ning coll. ( SICAU) . Paratypes. 1♂ 2♀. China: Jiange, Guangyuan , Sichuan, 18-VIII-2023, Yuan, Wei, Wang, Ning coll. ( SNNU) .

Etymology. The name ‘ prominens ’ is derived from the semi-circular prominence on the inner margin of the lateral lobes.

Diagnosis. Body dark yellow, epiphallic lateral lobe a with semicircular processes.

Description. Male ( Figs. 4 , 5 ): Small, slender, dark yellow. Vertex wide and flat, with sparsely setae, posterior with two light stripe; frontal wide, not protruding in the dorsal view, slightly wider than antennal scape; compound eyes large with irregular dark banding, protruding in dorsal view; ocellus invisible; antennal scape cylindrical with short hairs, pedicel cylindrical, flagellum longer than body length; clypeus wide; maxillary palp five segments, terminal segment long with transverse end; labial palpi three segments, the terminal segment enlarged with transverse end. Pronotum trapezoidal, posterior margin slightly wider than the anterior; anterior, and lateral margins with long setae, posterior margin with short setae; disc and lateral lobe light, with dark rounded spots. Procoxa cylindrical with sparsely setae; profemur and protibia covered with hairs; profemur ventral margin with two distinct ridges; tympana present on outer side, oval, about one fifth of the protibia, protibia terminal with one, slender apical spur; probasitarsus covered abundant short setae, second tarsomeres flattened; third tarsomere shorter than basitarsus, with two curved, serrated claws. Mesofemur and mesotibia covered with small hairs; mesotibia with two apical spurs; tarsus similar to the prothoracic leg. Metatibia with six subapical spurs (inner three and outer three) and five apical spurs (inner two and outer three), inner longer than outer spur; metabasitarsi not serrulated, with abundant short setae on ventral, apical with one inner and one outer spur, second tarsomeres short, third tarsomere with two curved, serrated claws. Tegmina ( Figs. 5C, D ) present and developed, lateral field wide, Sc with few branches; R, M+CuA not fused and forked, r-m present; CuPa forked into CuPaα and CuPaβ at the outer corner of mirror, then CuPaα forked into CuPaα1 and CuPaα2; one harp vein located between PCuA and CuPa; PCuP fused with PCuA in the basal field, AA fused with AP in the basal field, and then fused with PCuA before dividing vein (d2); dividing vein short, connect PCuA with CuPaβ, PCuA slightly curved in the chord field, t1 present; rounded false vein in the mirror; apical field short, with several irregular cells. Genitalia ( Fig. 6 ). In dorsal view, the middle of epiphallus particularly narrowed, widened on both sides, inner margin of lateral lobe with a semicircular protrusion, lateral lobe tapering at the end; in lateral view, lateral lobe with round end, ectoparamere invisible; in ventral view, ectoparamere sheet-like with rounded end.

Female ( Figs. 4B , 5B ). Similar to males, tegmina only with longitudinal veins. Ovipositor sword-shaped.

Measurements. Male (n=2). BL 5.32±0.14, PL 0.95±0.14, TL 2.33±0.25, HFL 3.23±0.14; Female (n=2). BL 4.72±0.21, PL 0.90±0.06, TL 3.12±0.12, MFL 5.02±0.11 OL 0.33±0.15.

Remarks. Based on large oval outer tympana and narrow inner tympana, the lateral lobe of epiphallus with narrow apical projection and the ectoparamere partially join with the epiphallus, this new species can be placed in Svistella . S. prominens sp. nov. can be distinguished from Svistella rufonotata ( Chopard, 1932) , Svistella dubia (Liu & Yin, 1993) , Svistella bifasciata (Shiraki, 1911) , Svistella argentata Ma, Jing & Zhang, 2019 , and Svistella yayun He, 2024 by smaller ectoparamere (invisible in lateral view). Generally, the new species is similar to S. anhuiensis , and both are found in the same area, but S. prominens sp. nov. possesses the body with darker color, S. anhuiensis with golden head and pronutum, light legs and abdomen. In addition, the genitalia is similar to S. anhuiensis , Svistella fallax He, Li & Liu, 2009 , and Svistella wuyong He, 2021 in lateral view, but S. prominens sp. nov. has obvious semicircular processes at the inner margin of the epiphallic lateral lobes in dorsal and ventral view ( Fig. 6 A, C ), while S. anhuiensis , S. fallax , and S. wuyong has smooth inner margin without processes.

Figures

FIGURE 4. Photographs of S. prominens sp. nov. A. Male; B. Female. Scale bar: 1 mm.

FIGURE 5. Photographs of S. prominens sp. nov. A. lateral view of male; B. lateral view of female; C. male tegmen; D. draw of tegmen; E. front view of head. Scale bars: A, B: 1mm, C–E: 5 mm.

FIGURE 6. Male genitalia of S. prominens sp. nov. A. dorsal view; B. lateral view; C. ventral view. Scale bar: 0.5 mm.