Acanthacara brachycyma, Braun & Morris, 2022

Braun, Holger & Morris, Glenn K., 2022, New species of awl-head katydids, Cestrophorus and Acanthacara, from the Andes of Ecuador (Orthoptera, Conocephalinae, Cestrophorini), Journal of Orthoptera Research 31 (2), pp. 143-156 : 143

Acanthacara brachycyma sp. nov.

Figs 9B , 10B , 15

Material examined. -

Holotype: ECUADOR • ♂; San Isidro, nr Cosanga; 2-6 Jul. 2003; G.K. Morris; MLP . Paratypes • 7 ♂♂; San Isidro , nr Cosanga; 2-6 Jul. 2003; G.K. Morris leg.; ANSP • 1 ♂; Cosanga ; 10 Feb. 1988; G.K. Morris leg.; ANSP • 1 ♀; San Isidro , nr Cosanga; 2-6 Jul. 2003; G.K. Morris leg.; MLP • 7 ♀♀; San Isidro , nr Cosanga; 2-6 Jul. 2003; G.K. Morris leg.; ANSP .

Etymology. -

Greek βραχύς - brachys [short] and κύμα - kyma [wave], a reference to the predominantly ultrasonic spectrum of the song (noun in apposition).

Diagnosis. -

Fastigium almost straight, very tip slightly downcurved. Tegmina about as long as pronotum, stridulatory area of left tegmen with translucent fields occupying almost ¾ of total length, the bulgy vein with stridulatory file underneath barely longer than mirror width. Pronotum with small blackish median spot on anterior margin (sometimes surrounded by a pair of smaller spots) and up to five spots on the rear margin, the middle one being the most prominent and the most lateral ones contiguous with the dark coloration of the lateral lobes. Last tergite shallowly bilobate. Cerci with a small dorsal tip and terminating in a ventrally directed process. The dorsal tip is directed medially and obtusely pointed. The ventral process is S-shaped, curving first inward and then downward, with an acute tip.

Notes. -

Very similar to A. ridiculosa Gorochov, 2015 and distinguished by the following differences: no reticulation on mirror area of left tegmen (dense venation network in Acanthacara ridiculosa according to photo in Gorochov 2015, fig. 69, cannot be illumination artifact); rear margin of last tergite shallowly emarginate without distinct lateral tips, rather with very broad lateral lobules (more or less distinctly rounded tips in Acanthacara ridiculosa , see ventral view in fig. 71 ( Gorochov 2015) for true contour, probably no shrinkage artifact); the secondary (dorsal) tip or process on the cerci is very short when viewed from all possible angles, directed inward, and in approximately same plane as terminal Acanthacara zigzag process (in Acanthacara ridiculosa , sticking out in dorsal view, apparently quite long in ventro-lateral view of fig. 72); the Acanthacara zigzag process is distinctly thinner than rest of cercus and fully S-shaped: curved first perpendicularly inward-not quite horizontally but slightly downward-and then halfway-rearward and perpendicularly downward (in Acanthacara ridiculosa , not thin over noticeable length, tip close to compact base, the inward-curved part relatively shorter in dorsal view in fig. 70). There are broad, thin and transparent, remotely cup-shaped structures below the cerci into which the latter could be stored, perhaps belonging to the paraproct, without any elongate or pointed processes (in Acanthacara ridiculosa , corresponding structure with conspicuous processes visible in fig. 70 and looking acutely pointed in ventral view in fig. 71). Subgenital plate shallowly emarginate, with two lobes between the styli and with very short styli that are hardly twice as long as wide (the subgenital plate of Acanthacara ridiculosa has a straight rear margin and the styli considerably longer according to figs 71, 72).

Measurements. -

Pronotum 4.3 mm, tegmina 4.0 mm, hind tibiae 9.3 mm.

Figures

Fig. 9. Acanthacara spp. male genitalia compared.

Fig. 10. Acanthacara adult males compared in dorsal aspect.

Fig. 15. Song of A. brachycyma. A. Two calls from an ongoing sequence of paired lisps; each lisp of 5 or so pulses; B. One complete lisp at higher time resolution; C. High resolution of a single sound pulse shows it to be highly sinusoidal; D. Spectrum dominated by ultrasonic peak at 30 kHz.