Platycercotura Gorochov & Tan, 2024

Tan, Ming Kai, Muhammad, Amira Aqilah, Gorochov, Andrei V. & Abdullah, Nurul Ashikin, 2024, An account on some katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea) from Panti Forest Reserve in Johor, Peninsular Malaysia, Zootaxa 5415 (1), pp. 117-143 : 134-135

Genus Platycercotura Gorochov & Tan , gen. nov.

Type species: Platycercotura caricauda Tan & Gorochov , gen. et sp. n., by monotypy.

Diagnosis. General appearance somewhat similar to that of the genera Pseudoteratura Gorochov, 1998 and Sumatropsis Gorochov, 2011 but with following characteristic features:body rather slender; head clearly prognathous, with globular eyes, indistinct ocelli, moderately small and almost conical upper rostral tubercle with dorso-median (longitudinal) groove, and maxillary palpi having three last segments rather long and thin as well as almost equal in length; pronotum semi-tubular in upper part, with anterior edge of disc almost straight, posterior edge of disc roundly angular, lateral lobes rather high and almost vertical, their ventral edges with obliquely rounded anterior portions and elongately sinuate posterior portions (latter portions gradually narrowing to pronotal apex, and humeral notches not very distinct; Figs 19E, 19F ); tegmina long and narrow (protruding distinctly beyond apices of hind femora) but with normal (not reduced) venation, i.e., stridulatory apparatus in male clearly developed, and RS vein with three branches branching from general base ( Fig. 19D ); hind wings distinctly protruding beyond tegminal apices ( Fig. 19D ); legs thin and not very long, with each fore tibia having two oval (open) tympana, four pairs of moderately short ventral spines on fore and middle tibiae (respectively), and distinctly but not strongly thickened proximal half of hind femur ( Fig. 19D ); male abdomen with elongated last tergite having a large postero-median process (this process rather thin basally but somewhat widened or thickened in distal part having different small lobules and/or denticles; Figs 23A–C ); male epiproct lobule, tongue-shaped, covered by above-mentioned process; Figs 23C, 23D ); each male cercus very characteristic, i.e., with large (strongly widened) plate-like proximal lobe (such lobes of both cerci overlapping each other in rest condition; Figs 23C, 23D ) and longer and very thin distal parts ( Figs 23C–E ); male genital plate rather short, with apical part widely truncate (and not notched), and with this apical part having rather small (thin) but clearly distinct styles with bases located very far from each other ( Fig. 23D ). Male genitalia with three distinct sclerites: median dorsal sclerite in shape of wide plate having a row of small denticles along posterior edge; a pair of ventral oblique sclerotized stripes also having denticles along posteromedial edges ( Figs 23F–H ).

Included species. Type species only.

Comparison. This genus is more or less similar to Pseudoteratura Gorochov, 1998 and Sumatropsis Gorochov, 2011 , but it differs from the first genus in the last male tergite with a large posteromedian process and small (normal) male epiproct hidden under this process (vs. this tergite in Pseudoteratura lacks any distinct processes, and its male epiproct is often large, specialised and penetrating the posteromedian part of the male last tergite); from Sumatropsis , the new genus is distinguished by the male cerci very different in the structure of their proximal and distal parts: these proximal parts have wide lobes in the new genus but rather narrow in Sumatropsis , and these distal parts are thin and almost stick-like in the new genus but rather wide and with spines and lobes in Sumatropsis . From all the other genera of Meconematini, the new genus differs in the following combination of features: the above-mentioned character of the male cerci, the presence of a distinct posteromedian process of the male last tergite and the characteristic sclerotized structures in the male genitalia.

Etymology. The name of this new genus originates from three parts: the Latinised Greek prefix “platy-” (widely), the morphological term “cercus” and a part of the generic name Pseudoteratura . This name indicates a widely lobe-like shape of the male cercal base in the new genus and some similarity of this genus to Pseudoteratura species.

Figures

FIGURE 19. Cercoteratura reflexa sp. n. (A–C) and Platycercotura caricauda gen. et sp. n. (D–F) ♁ adult holotypes: body and tegmina (A, D) in lateral views, head and pronotum in lateral (B, E) and dorsal (C, F) views. Scale bars: 5 mm (A, D), 2 mm (all except A, D).

FIGURE 23. Platycercotura caricauda gen. et sp. n. ♁ holotype: abdominal apex in dorsal (A), lateral (B), ventral (C, D) and ventro-lateral (E) views (A–C dry pinned; D, E in ethanol with genitalia intact), genitalia in ventral (F), posterior (G) and dorsal (H) views. Scale bars: 1 mm (all except F–H), 0.5 mm (F–H). Arrows indicates the lobular epiproct.