Anisophya hemanuelae, Fianco, 2023

Fianco, Marcos, 2023, Katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from Guartelá State Park, State of Paraná, Southern Brazil: diversity, bioacoustics and description of five new species, Journal of Natural History 57 (1), pp. 1080-1137 : 1105-1109

Anisophya hemanuelae sp. nov.

( Figure 10 and 12a )

Diagnosis

This new species can be easily distinguished from its congeners by the form of male cerci, which are hatchet-shaped, similar to some fish tails; the presence of a brown ring on hind femur; and the hind tibia almost entirely brown.

Description

Holotype male ( Figures 10a, 10c–h , 12a ). Overall aspect: small to medium-sized katydids, body cylindrical, brachypterous, antennae long, legs long and slender ( Figure 10a ). Head ( Figure 10c–d ): fastigium of frons 1.5× wider than scape. Median sulcus of fastigium of vertex absent. Fastigium of frons touching fastigium of vertex. Antennal scape and pedicel cylindrical, antennae mostly yellowish but brownish on lateral part of proximal third; pedicel and first antennomere reddish. General colour green; vertex with some reddish spots and a medial stripe of light green surrounded by a thin black band; apex of fastigium of frons with a small white ocellus ( Figure 10c ); a yellowish band from eye towards pronotum. Thorax: Pronotum: pronotal disc greenish/light brown with scattered reddish spots. Lateral lobes greenish with reddish spots; lateral carinae more evident in anterior and posterior region. Wings: tegmina human-heart shaped, not reaching half of third tergite ( Figure 10a, e–f ); ScP long and sinuous; R branching on half of its length; RP sinuous on tegmen apex; M sinuous; A1 light yellow on dorsal view, but proximal and distal regions reddish brown; stridulatory file light yellow; stridulatory area yellowish brown, but reddish near Cu vein and proximal and distal regions near A1; costal and medial regions green. Legs: genicular lobes of all femora with two spines. Femur I and II greenish with crimson spots; all tibiae brownish, tibia III darker at apex; femur III green but with a brown ring just after its middle that ends before apex, covering ca. one-fourth of femur; all legs with irregular crimson spots. Abdomen: tergites yellowish green, first four lighter than last six ( Figure 10g ); posterior margin of all tergites with a medial expansion, but tergite X with a reentrance and a deeply medial depression on dorsal surface, half as long as cerci; Tergite X green with yellowish stains and reddish spots. Cerci ( Figure 10g –h ) proximally curved; apex decreasing in thickness; medial projection trapezoidal; resembling a hatchet head or a fish tail; setae present in all surface, but denser in lateral region. Subgenital plate ( Figure 10h ) trapezoidal; proximally wider; styliform process quite small, wider than long; medial keel absent; posterior margin slightly convex; lateral field in vertical position; vertical field deplaned; lateral flange barely developed; anterior margin concave.

Female ( Figures 10b and 12a ). Same size as male; head bigger; wings smaller; same colour pattern as male. Ovipositor as long as one-third of body length; curved upwards; decreasing in size gradually, but abruptly at apex; pointed at apex. In vivo apex yellowish, and general colour as body colour, ie green with reddish spots.

Bioacoustics ( Figure 10i–k )

Males call only during the night, producing echeme sequences almost fully located in the ultrasound; the human ear can perceive some ticks, but most of the energy is above the human hearing capacity (22 kHz). Each echeme sequence has a mean duration of 25.5 ± 6.1s (21.6– 32.5s), and the amplitude of the echeme sequence initiates in a crescendo that stabilises itself after the first third of the sequence ( Figure 10i ). Males produce echemes composed by several pulses, forming ′tick̍ patterns, 12 ± 3 (7–16), each pair of echemes with duration of 0.3 ± 0.03s (0.23– 0.37s) separated by a mute interval of 0.6 ± 0.08s (0.38– 0.9s). The initial pulses of each echeme are less spaced than the final pulses (ie the mute interval between pulses increases in an echeme); moreover, the amplitude of each echeme is also in a crescendo, but it usually decreases in the last two or three pulses ( Figure 10j ). The peak frequency of the calling song is 26 ± 1.9 kHz (21– 28 kHz); however, the bandwidth is quite wide, 11.3 ± 3 kHz (6.2–20.7 kHz). The frequency ranges from ca. 15 to 35 kHz ( Figure 10k ).

Type material

Holotype male. ′ Brasil, PR, Tibagi, Parque \ Estadual do Guartelá [Guartelá State Park] \ 24.5660°S, 50.2561°W 10–13.ii.2021, Coleta ativa\noturna [nocturnal active collection] M. Fianco, D.N. Barbosa & P.W. Engelking ̍, deposited at ′ Coleção Entomológica Padre Jesus Santiago Moure̍ ( DZUP) . Paratypes: one male and one female, same data; two females, same data, except ′ 08–11.iii.2021̍ and ′M. Fianco, D.N. Barbosa & H. Preis ̍; all deposited at DZUP .

Measurements (mm)

Holotype: BL: 14; TegL: 3.5; HW: 2; PrL: 2.8; PrH: 2; FLiii: 13; TLiii: 14; SPL: 1.5; CL: 2; SFL: 1.9; TN: 83. Male paratype: BL: 15; TegL: 3.6; HW: 2.2; PrL: 3; PrH: 2.1; FLiii: 13.8; TLiii: 14.2; SPL: 1.5; CL: 2; SFL: 1; TN: 106. Female paratypes: BL: 12–15; TegL: 3.4–3.9; HW: 2–2.3; PrL: 2.6–3; PrH: 1.8–2.3; FLiii: 14–16; TLiii: 14–17; SPL: 0.8; OL: 0.7–0.9.

Etymology

The specific epithet honours the young orthopterist/ecologist Hemanueli Preis, who contributed to collecting the type material. She, besides being one of my best friends, saved my life in 2019.

Comparison

Like most species of the genus, except Anisophya una Fianco, Faria and Braun , the new species holds a fastigium without any sulcus. The new species also has the lateral edges of fastigium of vertex and frons parallel and contiguous, lateral carinae of pronotum closer in prozona than metazona, characteristics present in all species of the genus.

The main difference distinguishing A. hemanuelae sp. nov. is in the form of the male cerci. Although the male cercus is not hook-shaped as in all other species of the genus except A. una , the cerci of A. hemanuelae sp. nov. resemble more the typical cercus presents in the genus, and are not comma-shaped as in A. una . Picturing the male cercus only, the new species more closely resembles A. borelli (Giglio-Tos) , A. hamata (Giglio-Tos) and A. pulchella (Giglio-Tos) , differing from the first two by not having a long and pointed spine in the medial projection, and from all by having a trapezoidal medial projection instead of a triangular one. From the other species, A. hemanuelae sp. nov. differs by having a quite evident and large medial projection.

Like most species of this genus, the new species has green as the main colouration, differing from all for having the last third of femur III brown, tibia II entirely brown, and tibia III almost all brown. The colouration of the legs seems to be quite similar to an undescribed species from Argentina (H. Braun, pers. comm.). The species A. melanochloris and A. una are the only ones of the genus with black colours, being the first with a medial band on abdomen, and the second the main colouration with a medial yellowish band on abdomen (see Fianco et al. 2019b). The brownish colouration of the stridulatory area on tegmina is a condition that also occurs in A. biforma Nickle , A. Bolivia Gorochov , A. brasiliensis (Brunner von Wattenwyl) , A. careomacula , A. melanochloris , and in the undescribed species from Argentina. However, A. punctinervis (Stål) and A. schoenemanni (Karsch) have a green colour in this area.

The ovipositor in A. hemanuelae sp. nov. is quite similar in size to that of A. brasiliensis , a little smaller than that of A. Bolivia , A. borelli , A. hamata , A. pulchella and A. schoenemanni , and longer than that of A. biforma , A. careomacula , A. melanochloris , A. punctinervis , and A. una . The form of the ovipositor may reflect the oviposition site, as species with a small ovipositor and quite serrate such as A. melanochloris and A. una usually oviposit in dry stems, whereas the new species and possibly the remaining species with long ovipositors lay their eggs in dry or live wood (Barbosa and Fianco, in prep.).

In males of this species, as in other Anisophya species, the maximum energy of the calling songs falls in ultrasound; however, this peak frequency is well below the maximum frequency found in A. una (40 kHz), but much higher than the frequency found in the dichopetalines ( Odonturini : Dichopetala genus group; see Buzzetti and Barrientos-Lozano 2011). Contrary to A. una and A. melanochloris , the new species does not produce different types of syllables or echemes, but only one. This situation is also found in similar species of Anisophya , such as A. punctinervis (sound provided by H. Braun under biodar.unlp.edu.ar/tettigoniidae/). The sounds of the last species are quite similar to the sounds of A. hemanuelae sp. nov., with most of the energy located in the ultrasound level, and the echemes gradually increasing in amplitude.

Comments

This is the easternmost record of the genus; the greater diversity of the genus is in Argentina and Paraguay. In Brazil there are two species recorded, A. melanochloris and A. una , both for the State of Paraná. This is also the first record of the genus for the Cerrado formations; previous records were just for the Atlantic Forest. Individuals of this species are exclusively nocturnal, starting their activity some hours after sunset. The specimens of this new species were collected only in the grassy-woody steppe and hygrophilous steppe, and females were observed laying eggs in live stems of the vegetation present on the sites.

Figures

Figure 10. Anisophya hemanuelae sp. nov. (a) Male holotype, habitus; (b) female holotype, habitus; (c) head and pronotum, dorsal view; (d) head and pronotum, lateral view; (e) male tegmen (veins: black = ScP; blue = R; red = M; arrow indicates A1); (f) male stridulatory area; (g) male cerci and tergite X, dorsal view; (h) male cerci and subgenital plate, ventral view; (i) sonogram of an echeme sequence; (j) sonogram of an echeme; (k) spectrogram of an echeme, in linear intensity scale.

Figure 12. Species of Odonturini collected in Guartelá State Park. (a) Anisophya hemanuelae sp. nov., male (left) and female (right); (b, c) females of Xenicola nunoi sp. nov., found at night feeding on flowers and leaves of Malpighiaceae; (d) male holotype of X. nunoi sp. nov.; (e) X. xukrixi, female.