Vichetia helleri ( Schmidt, 1998 )

Skejo, Josip, Rebrina, Fran, Tvrtković, Nikola, Gomboc, Stanislav & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2015, More than a century old ‘ Platycleis Kraussi case’ finally resolved (Tettigoniidae: Platycleidini), Zootaxa 3990 (4), pp. 497-524 : 501

Vichetia helleri ( Schmidt, 1998)

Bulgaria: Barzija (type locality) 1640 m a.s.l. 2 ♂♂ (paratypes) + 1 ♀(holotype) 18.VIII.1995. leg. G. H. Schmidt (examined online, at Orthoptera Species File, Eades et al. 2014).

Morphology and morphometry. The comparison between P. kraussi and B. kuntzeni was based on tegmina coloration (males and females), and cerci shape and coloration (males only) ( Ramme 1931, Nadig 1987). The comparison was performed on 21 males and 18 females of B. kuntzeni from area near Ramme’s locus typicus (Učka Mt. and Ćićarija Mt.) and on 22 males and 12 females of P. kraussi near Padewieth’s locus typicus (Velika Kapela Mt.).

Morphometrical analysis has been done on Bicolorana kuntzeni / Platycleis kraussi , Bicolorana bicolor and Modestana modesta (30 males and 30 females of each species, in total 180 specimens). All measurements (in millimetres) were taken with a dial calliper with accuracy of 0.01 mm.

The following measurements were taken:

Tl— total body length, from the frons to the end of the X th tergite;

Pnl— pronotum length, from the frontal margin of the prozona to the distal margin of the metazona; Pah— paranotal height, from the lower margin of the paranota to the connection with pronotal discus; Ovl— ovipositor length from the base to the apex of the ovipositor (females only); Sgpl— female subgenital plate length from the connection of the subgenital plate with VII th sternite to the apex of the subgenital plate (females only);

Hfl— hind femora length, from the base of the hind femora to the tip of the hind knee; Hfw— hind femora width in the widest part of the hind femora (maximal width) and Tegl— tegmina length from the tegmina base to the tegmina apex.

Two ratios between measured characters were calculated:

Hfl/Hfw— hind femora length / width ratio, in both sexes

Ovl/Sgpl— ovipositor length / subgenital plate length, in females

Intervals between minimal and maximal value obtained are shown in the upper part of every box within the table, while in the lower part of the box, in brackets, arithmetic value is presented with standard deviation ( Table 1 ). To test the significance we conducted student t-test. We conducted student t-test of groups with equal variance, 2-tailed and with significance p <0.05. We analysed also linear regression trend to see if there is any correlation between variables and whether that character is of a taxonomical significance. Regression analysis and the test of statistical significance were performed in Microsoft Excel 2003 (©Microsoft Softwares) and in Statistica software (©Statistica). The equations of linear trend are listed (in form y=mx + b).

Photos of certain morphological features were taken using Panasonic Lumix DMC-FS45 camera Macro option without flash combined with BTC STM-9 stereo zoom (0.65–6.5x) trinocular stereomicroscope under magnification of 20x or 40x.

Bioacoustics. Descriptions of the songs are mainly based on combination and re-evaluation of published sources (papers and sound files on CD/DVD/Internet: Heller 1988, Ragge and Reynolds 1998, Massa et al. 2013, Gomboc & Šegula 2014, SYSTAX 2014, Eades et al. 2014). New recordings of B. kraussi were made in the field using Roland R-05 portable sound stereo recorder. In addition, some unpublished records of Filippo Maria Buzzetti were used ( M. modesta from Kamešnica Mt.). Song measurements and sonograms were obtained using AMADEUS II and AMADEUS Pro (Martin Hairer; http://www.hairersoft.com). Oscillograms of the songs were prepared using TURBOLAB (Bressner Technology, Germany).

Bioacoustics terminology: Syllable: sound produced during one cycle of movements (opening and closing of the tegmina: opening and closing hemisyllable); syllable period: time period measured from the last impulse of the second to the last impulse of the third syllable of an echeme (reciprocal value syllable repetition rate); echeme: first order assemblage of syllables; echeme period: time period measured from the beginning of the first syllable of an echeme to that of the first syllable of the next echeme (reciprocal value echeme repetition rate). The song of B. kraussi contains two types of syllables, differing in duration. The shorter ones, which were not observed in the other species, are called microsyllables.