Eunapiodes Bolivar, 1907

Massa, Bruno, 2013, Pamphagidae (Orthoptera: Caelifera) of North Africa: key to genera and the annotated check-list of species, Zootaxa 3700 (3), pp. 435-475 : 456-457

Eunapiodes Bolivar, 1907 (type-species: Pamphagus granosus Stål )

Bolivar (1907) described this genus to separate it from Euryparyphes (formerly Eunapius ); the name Eunapiodes just means “related to Eunapius ”. Typical characters of this genus are the hind femurs with upper and lower borders laterally flattened and provided with tubercles, upper border constricted just before the genicular lobe, prosternal process bi-toothed, and pronotum keel not longitudinally furrowed. According to Descamps (1968) aedeagus valves have the shape with columnar keels, character that La Greca (1993) has used to include them within Euryparyphini . The revision of this genus by Descamps (1968) concluded that only one species, E. granosus , represented by five subspecies, is present in Morocco; this author presented a key to subspecies (only males), mainly based on femur and tibiae colour and on their mean size. He also described E. granosus rungsi from the North-West of Middle Atlas, characterized by inner border of hind femurs red or orange. In the MNCN I found three specimens from Ifrane (North of Azrou) identified by Escalera as E. acutithorax , and six specimens from Bou Angueur (actually Bou Anguer, South of Azrou), Middle Atlas, identified by Escalera as E. pasquieri . The comparison of the series of E. acutithorax (MNCN) with topotypic specimens of E. ifranensis from Ifrane (MNHN) consented to establish that E. ifranensis (Werner, 1932) and E. acutithorax are the same taxon. In addition, the comparison of the type series of E. granosus rungsi (MNHN) with the series of E. pasquieri (MNCN) consented to establish that they belong to the same taxon. However, I was unable to find any reference where E. acutithorax and E. pasquieri were described; they are considered as nomina dubia by Eades et al. (2013).

I redraw the map performed by Descamps (1968), including all the localities known for each taxon ( Fig. 176 ); populations till now considered as subspecies resulted to be allopatric, even if in the same geographic area of Middle Atlas. I also tried to elaborate a pair of figures with biometric data ( Figs. 174–175 showing total length versus pronotum length in males and females); it seems evident that rungsi and atlantis lie in the same area of graphs, less granosus and latipes , and ifranensis and latipes . This is less evident in the females, very difficult to separate without males, as pointed out by Descamps (1968). E. granosus and E. latipes may be recognized also by their mesosternal and metasternal spaces, clearly wider than long in granosus ( Fig. 172 ), less in latipes ( Fig. 173 ), which also shows a less raised pronotum ( Figs. 170–171 ). Probably much material is needed, but I tentatively should consider the following valid taxa: Eunapiodes granosus ( Figs. 162–163 ), E. ifranensis ( Figs. 164–165 ), E. latipes ( Figs. 170–171 ) and E. atlantis ( Figs. 166–167 ), with E. rungsi its junior synonym.

Figures

FIGURES 174 – 176. 174 – 175. Total length versus pronotum length in males (174) and females (175) of taxa belonging to the genus Eunapiodes. 176. Distribution of Eunapiodes taxa (after Descamps 1968, modified).

FIGURES 162 – 173. Characters of taxa described in the Moroccan genus Eunapiodes; on the left males, on the right females.