Platydecticus diaguita, Vera 2015

Sánchez, Alejandro Vera, 2015, A new species of Platydecticus (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae; Nedubini) from the Andes of Chile, Zootaxa 4040 (2), pp. 243-250 : 244-249

Platydecticus diaguita, Vera 2015

http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera .speciesfile.org:TaxonName:471457

Etymology. Diaguita = name of the original Amerindian people who inhabited the zone where the species was discovered.

Diagnosis. Size small, fastigium of vertex truncated with wide depression; eyes prominent on the head; ventrocaudal angles of male 9th tergite not projected, rounded; male cercus bifid, not bicolored, elongated with internal tooth of larger size; male pseudocercus sub-triangular, elongated, with the tooth in apical position; male subgenital plate not modified, widely sunken between styli. Titillators not sclerotized, medial lobule subquadrate and the lateral ones bifid; procoxal spine tiny; fore and middle tibia with 3 to 4 ventral spines; hind tibia with a maximum of 5 and 4 dorsal spines over the external and internal margins, respectively. Ovipositor with sharp separated spines on almost the whole dorsal margin and only in the distal half over the ventral margin. Egg ellipsoidal, chorion soft, chorionic cells polygonal with thick walls and irregular central surface. Micropyle tube slightly elevated with wrinkled base.

Description. The morphometry for the studied specimens is given in Table I. Male: head ( Fig. 2 ) with fastigium of vertex wide, truncated, sides divergent, with a wide depression; eyes prominent over the dorsum of the head. Mouthparts: mandible ( Fig. 3) with three incisors, premolar tooth subquadrate and molar region in the form of a cup; maxilla with lacinia (Fig. 4) of two curved, sharp apical teeth, with a pair of dorsal tubercles at the base and four more over the galea; palpus with three distal segments of similar length (Fig. 5); labium ( Fig. 6) with globose paraglossa, last segment of the palpus of length similar to the sum of the two before.

Legs: fore coxae with small rounded spine ( Fig. 7), fore tibia ( Fig. 7) and middle tibia ( Fig. 8) with one or two subapical spines on each side, apex with two ventral spines, one on each side; hind tibia armed on dorsal surface with 4 or 5 spines over the external margin and with 2 to 3 in the internal margin, apex without spines ( Fig. 20 ), ventral surface without spines, apex with a pair of asymmetrical spurs ( Fig. 9 ), the external is smaller. All femurs without spines. Tarsus of four segments with the posterior metatarsus of similar length to the second ( Fig. 9 ). Pronotum transversal with posterior margin convex. Tegmina ( Fig. 10) subquadrate with rounded apex, with stridulatory file occupying only half the width of the tegmina. Stridulatory file ( Fig.11) of 34 teeth, with two tubercules in its costal extreme, followed by 26 square laminae and 6 tubercules in the posterior extreme; the latter are irregular and arranged interspersed.

Genitalia: ventro-caudal angles of ninth tergite not projected ( Fig. 20 ), rounded. Pseudocercus ( Fig. 12) subtriangular, long; tooth in apical position, robust, highly sclerotized and curved ventrally. Cercus ( Fig.12 and 13) elongated, subcylindrical (conical in lateral view), apically bifurcate; apical tooth acute; internal subapical tooth acute, curved medially and of larger size than the apical tooth. Subgenital plate ( Fig. 14 ) without modifications, widely sunken between the styli, margin slightly protruding in the medial line. Styli short. Titillator (Fig. 15) not sclerotized, median lobule wide and subquadrate, lateral lobules bifid, with sharp apices. Lateral sclerite little sclerotized, long with sharp distal extreme.

Female: differs from the male in the hind tibia with 5 and 4 dorsal spines in the external and internal margins, respectively; ovipositor (Fig. 16) short, four times longer than wide, progressively narrowing towards the apex, sharp and barely curved dorsally. Dorsal margin with fine, separated teeth in its entire length, ventral margin tooth in the distal half with 12-14 teeth. Subgenital plate in ventral view with rounded posterior margin, almost as long as wide. Spermatheca ovalate, surrounded once by the spermatic duct, over the VII sternum.

Egg ellipsoidal in shape ( Fig. 17), length 2.2 mm, whitish color with soft chorion. Ultrastructure with polygonal chorionic cells (Fig. 18) with thick walls and irregular central surface. Micropyle tubes ( Fig. 19) distributed in three pairs, each tube slightly elevated with wrinkled base.

Colors ( Fig. 20 ): gray with black and tan spots. Antennae with banded black intermittently. Pronotum with black and brown marginal point, with two anterior spots behind the eyes. Tegmina with dark spot behind the pronotum. Fore and medium femurs with a dorsal point at the base and a subapical band. Medium and hind tibia with a subapical band. Outer pagina of hind femur with a black longitudinal interrupted stripe, bifurcation obscure; one right in the strangulation of the femur and the other in subapical position. Hind tibia black in the distal third and the spines, with intermittent points in the anterior two thirds. Tarsi dark in the points of articulation and claws. Abdomen with posterior margin of the tergites with black and brown points; tergites I to III dark, this blotch thins towards the anterior medial line: anterior margin of tergites VII to X black; tergum VII with a pair of convergent spots towards the posterior medial line. Cercus not bicolored.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Head (dorsal), scale 0.5 mm;

FIGURE 9. Hind tarsi, scale 0.2 mm;

FIGURE 14. Subgenital plate of male (dorsal), scale 0.2 mm; FIGURE 15. Titillator and lateral sclerite to the left, scale 0.5 mm; FIGURE 16. Ovipositor (lateral), scale 0.2 mm;

FIGURE 20. General view of female and male adults (allotype and holotype, respectively), scale 3 mm.