Sphenarium macrophallicum Kevan and Boyle, 1977

Sanabria-Urbán, Salomón, Song, Hojun, Oyama, Ken, González-Rodríguez, Antonio & Castillo, Raúl Cueva Del, 2017, Integrative taxonomy reveals cryptic diversity in neotropical grasshoppers: taxonomy, phylogenetics, and evolution of the genus Sphenarium Charpentier, 1842 (Orthoptera: Pyrgomorphidae), Zootaxa 4274 (1), pp. 1-86 : 33-34

Sphenarium macrophallicum Kevan and Boyle, 1977

(http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera .speciesfile.org:TaxonName:37035)

Description. External morphology ( Figs. 8 E, F; 9M, N): total body length total body length ranging from 23.47 to 38.88 mm in females and 23.12 to 36.15 mm in males; antennae filiform; notably shorter in females or slightly longer than head and pronotum together in males; head subtriangular-elongated nearly as wide as long in females or moderately longer in males wide, with oval eyes in both sexes; fastigium moderately elongated, nearly half the length of interocular space in both sexes; tegmina spatula-like in both sexes; subgenital plate of males rounded notably developed posteriorly; dorsal ovipositor valves rounded or lanceolate moderately elongated towards the apex. Male genitalia: bridge of epiphallus shorter or as long as the length of lateral plates ( Fig. 12 G-I). Ectophallus in dorsal view ( Fig. 12 G-II) large with lateral borders of ramus parallel; basal emargination of cingulum notably reduced; interspace between apodemal plates notably open. Ectophallus in posterior view ( Fig. 12 H) without a conspicuous sclerotized hollow in the sheath; inflections of supraramus reduced; ramus of cingulum distinctly developed ventrally; valves of cingulum small with unique form, centred at the middle of the sheath. In lateral view of ectophallus valves of cingulum slightly developed posteriorly ( Fig. 12 I). Endophallus in lateral view ( Fig. 12 G- III) with elongated pseudoarch, loosely joined to the valves of cingulum; aedeagal valves very slender and long, with smooth ventral margins and moderately rounded in the apex without apical spine; aedeagal valves and sclerites together about 2 ½ to 3 fold the length of dorsal inflections of endophallic apodemes.

Colouration. Ground colours vary from green to brown. Body uniformly coloured or with the following colour traits: antennae generally black or dark brown; fastigium frequently reddish; lateral postocular bands frequently present, wide and yellow; dorsomedial line frequently absent, if present very narrow and yellowish; dorsal shades generally absent; lateral shades frequently absent, if present narrow and black, principally evident in head, metanotum, 1st abdominal segment and apex of abdomen; lateral bands of blotches not evident; ventral bands of pronotum often absent, if present very narrow and yellowish; mesonotum partially or entirely black; lateral whitish blotches of 1st abdominal segment frequently absent; hind femora mostly uniformly coloured, sometimes with lower medial area yellowish and knees laterally black, dorsally reddish; hind tibia generally black.

Diagnosis. Externally this species closely resembles S. crypticum sp.n. and S. infernalis sp.n., which are distributed contiguously. Generally, males of S. macrophallicum differ from males of other species by its rounded subgenital plate more notably developed posteriorly. Moreover, the male genitalia of S. macrophallicum are unique among its congeners and differ by the following combination of characters: ectophallus notably large with lateral borders of ramus of ectophallus parallel, inflections of supraramus reduced, ramus of cingulum distinctly developed ventrally, valves of cingulum small with distinct form and centred at the middle of the sheath, aedeagal valves very long and slender with smooth ventral margins and moderately rounded in the apex, and aedeagal valves and sclerites together longer than in any other species ranging from 2 ¾ to 3 fold the length of dorsal inflections of endophallic apodemes.

Distribution. This species is distributed northwest of the middle portion of the Balsas River Basin in elevations ranging from 207 to 1607 m a.s.l. in Michoacan and Guerrero, Mexico ( Fig. 7 A).

Material examined. Holotype m ( Fig. 8 E) from Mexico: Guerrero, 11 rd. mi. NE. of Arcelia, XII-8-1958, 3000ft ± (T. J. Cohn #360) . Allotype f ( Fig. 8 F) from Mexico: Guerrero, Cd. Altamirano, X-20-1957 . Paratypes from Mexico: Guerrero: 1 m same locality as holotype ( Figs. 7 M; 10G, H, I), 1 m, 1 f, Temisco , XI-10-1928 (T. W: Bouchelle). Designation: Kevan and Boyle (1974) and location: UMMZ for all these specimens. We were able to examine both external and genital morphology of this type material. Additional material: 45 m, 43 f, from six localities. Locality information and depositories of these additional specimens examined is provided in Appendix Table 5.

Taxonomic discussion. This species was partially described from eight specimens collected from three different localities in Guerrero, Mexico ( Kevan 1977). After the original description, the validity of this species has remained unchanged, even in the most recent studies in the genus ( Pedraza-Lara et al. 2015; Sanabria-Urbán et al. 2015). Our phylogenetic analysis recovered S. macrophallicum as a paraphyletic species and we observed relatively low levels of genetic differentiation between S. macrophallicum and other adjacent ( S. crypticum sp.n., S. tarascum sp.n., S. rugosum , S. purpurascens ) and distant species ( S. variabile and S. zapotecum sp.n.) ( Table 3). Nevertheless, the decidedly different and unique combination of male genital traits, and restricted geographic distribution of this species supports its recognition as an independent species within the genus.

Figures

FIGURE 7. Geographic distribution of Sphenarium species. Numbers within parenthesis in front of taxa names indicate the number of identified morphotype within the species. White surrounded areas and upper case abbreviations denote the Mexican biogeographic provinces. AC, Altos de Chiapas; AL, Altiplano Sur; BRB, Balsas River Basin; GMC, Gulf of Mexico Coast; MVB, Mexican Volcanic Belt; PC, Pacific Coast; SMOC, Sierra Madre Occidental; SMOR, Sierra Madre Oriental; SMS, Sierra Madre Sur; SO, Soconusco; and SOX, Sierra de Oaxaca.

FIGURE 8. Type specimens of S. purpurascens: lectotype m (A) and paralectotype f (B); S. planum: lectotype m (C) and paralectotype f (D); S. macrophallicum: holotype m (E) and allotype f (F); S. minimum lectotype m (G); S. affine lecototype m (H) (Scale bars = 1 cm).

FIGURE 12. Male genital structures of S. tarascum sp. n. holotype (A – C); S. planum (D – F); S. macrophallicum paratype # 234 (G – I); and S. minimum (J – L). For all taxa left squares show epiphallus (I) and ectophallus (II) in dorsal view, and endophallus in lateral view (III); meddle squares show ectophallus in posterior view; and right squares show a close up of ectophallus in lateral view (Scale bars = 1 mm).