Falconius, Bolívar, 1898

Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Tan, Ming Kai, Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, Azirun, Mohammad Sofian, Bhaskar, Dhaneesh & Skejo, Josip, 2018, An annotated catalogue of the pygmy grasshoppers of the tribe Scelimenini Bolívar, 1887 (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) with two new Scelimena species from the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra, Zootaxa 4485 (1), pp. 1-70 : 24

Genus Falconius, Bolívar, 1898

( Fig. 9 )

Falconius: Bolívar 1898 , Hancock 1907a, Kirby 1910, Günther 1938a, Yin et al. 1996, Otte 1997, Jiang & Zheng 1998, Zheng 2005, Zheng et al. 2006, Deng et al. 2007, 2009, Storozhenko 2014, Zheng 2014, Deng 2016, Storozhenko 2017.

Type species: Criotettix clavitarsis Bolívar, 1887

Composition and distribution. 20 species distributed in PR China: Yunnan ( F. undatifemora ), Guangdong ( F. annulicornis , F. longidorsalis ), Guangxi ( F. guangxiensis , F. longicornis ) and Hainan ( F. hainanensis ), Vietnam ( F. tschernovi ), Myanmar ( F. inaequalis ), Thailand ( F. inaequalis ), Cambodia ( F. elephant ) on Mentawai Islands Sipora ( F. clavatus , F. gestroi , F. karnyi ) and Siberut ( F. karnyi ), Sumatra ( F. becvari comb. nov.), Java ( F. bedoti ), Borneo ( F. clavitarsis , F. deceptor , F. dubius , F: planitarsus , F. pseudoclavitarsis ), and the Philippines: Palawan Isl. ( F. palawanicus ). Since we did not review this genus, we only present list of its species, with brief discussion on its type species ( F. clavitarsis ) and F. becvari comb. nov.

Notes. The genus currently includes 20 species and its taxonomy is confusing. The genus was established by Bolívar (1898) for a Criotettix species ( F. clavitarsis ( Bolívar, 1887) , type locality Borneo) and two new species ( F. clavatus Bolívar, 1898 and F. gestroi Bolívar, 1898 ) in which females have widened third (distal) segment of the hind tarsi. Since this character is present also in Eufalconius , we are not sure if it represents apomorphic or homoplastic character. Members of this genus are smaller than most Scelimenini , have visible interhumeral carina (evident only in Euscelimena and some Tegotettix species within Scelimenini ), lack pronotal projections homologous to that of Scelimenini , despite of having sometimes wrinkled pronotum with elevations, and the antennal grooves and paired lateral ocelli situated higher. Despite preliminary examination of species with photographs in Orthoptera Species File Online ( Cigliano et al. 2018), this remains unclear. Within the genus Falconius , large variability in the morphology of the lateral lobes can be observed; and ventrolateral projection can be (1) sharp spine strongly directed forwards ( F. bedoti , F. clavitarsis , F. dubius , F.guanxiensis , F. hainanensis , F. longicornis , F. longidorsalis , F. tschernovi and F. undatifemura ), (2) long transverse spine gently curved forwards ( F. clavatus and F. palawanicus ), (3) short spine directed forwards ( F. pseudoclavitarsis ), short transverse spine ( F. annulicornus and F. deceptor ), (4) short tooth-like spine ( F. elephant ), or (5) truncated ( F. becvari comb. nov., F. gestroi , F. inaequalis , F. karnyi , F. planitarsus ) (Storozhenko 2017). Gavialidium becvari is transferred here, thus Falconius becvari ( Buzzetti & Devriese, 2008) comb. nov. This genus is morphologically also similar to Arulenus Stål, 1877 and Mazarredia Bolívar, 1887 . Revision of the genus was published recently ( Deng et al. 2009), so we do not assess taxonomy of all the species, especially from Chinese, in details.

Figures

FIGURE 9. Alive Falconius cf. deceptor Günther, 1938 male, standing on a leaf in Danum Valley (Borneo: Malaysia: Sabah). Photograph by Paul Bertner, reproduced with photographer’s permission.