Afroagraecia Ingrisch & Hemp

Hemp, Claudia, 2013, Annotated list of Ensifera (Orthoptera) and further records on Caelifera (Orthoptera) of Mt Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, Zootaxa 3613 (4), pp. 301-342 : 307-308

Afroagraecia Ingrisch & Hemp n. gen.

Type species: Agraecia sansibara Redtenbacher, 1891 here designated.

Diagnosis. The majority of Agraecia species are distributed in South America (11 species) and the Karribean (1 species), while two species are described from Indonesia and Papua New Guinea (Eades et al. 2012). The current generic diagnosis as given by Redtenbacher (1891) is rather vague and thus not well delineated from other genera of Conocephalinae . The type species of Agraecia , A. punctata (Saint-Fargeau & Serville, 1825) has a strongly globose male tenth abdominal tergite with the apical (= ventral) margin faintly split in middle, and the male cerci very short with a stout internal projection. These characters are shared with a few other South American Agraecia such as A. dorsalis Karny, 1907 and A. nigrifrons Redtenbacher, 1891 .

Afroagraecia differs from A. punctata in the pronotum having a weak, hardly expressed auditory swelling instead of a distinct oval swelling, by a more or less brachypterous wing condition instead of being fully winged, by the male tenth abdominal tergite being rather normal, only little prolonged and faintly excised in middle instead of being strongly globose, and by the male cerci that can be of variable shape but always consisting of a stout base and a narrow incurved apical area and carries several internal processes instead of being very short with a stout internal process.

From Afroanthracites , Afroagraecia differs by the simple conical fastigium verticis, the subsmooth pronotum, longer wings, the unmodified tenth abdominal tergite, the male cerci composed of a stout basal and a narrow apical part, and the titillators. From Anthracites it differs by the shape of pronotum with the ventral margins straight and the auditory swelling faint, by the mesosternal lobes with apices not spinose and the medial plate with only a weak tubercle instead of a spine at hind angles, the characteristic shape of the male cerci and the different basic shape of the titillators.

Description. Fastigium verticis conial and strongly laterally compressed, shorter than scapus. Scapus without a spine. Prosternum bispinose, meso- and metasternum unarmed. Pronotum rounded, surface shiny with shallow dots; anterior margin rounded, posterior margin truncate and slightly elevated in male; lateral lobes with straight ventral margin but little descending posteriorly; auditory swelling small and faint. Tegmina and wings nearly fully developed or shortened. Fore femora on both ventral margins with few spines, mid and hind femora only on externo-ventral margin with few spines.

Male. Last abdominal tergite of males divided into two broad and posteriorly evenly rounded lobes ( Fig. 3 B, E, F). Male cerci very stout and elongated, bi- to trispinose with sclerotized tips ( Fig. 3 B, E, F). On inner sides of male cerci one or two processes ( Fig. 3 B).

Titillators consisting of a central pair of simple, sclerotized, curved titillators proper laterally connected with an elongate semi-stiffened projection with granular surface often pointing in the same direction as the titillators proper ( Fig. 4 C, D). Often, but maybe not in all species with a second pair of external titillators that are straight and with spinose tip; near tip with another but tiny external sclerite. In addition, on dorso-proximal base with a pair of small, less strongly sclerotized baso-lateral sclerites.

Female. Ovipositor long and slender, only slightly up-curved ( Fig. 3 D).

Included species: A. sansibara (Redtenbacher, 1891) n. comb., A. bloyeti (Brongniart, 1897) n. comb., A. panteli (Karny, 1907) n. comb., A. brachyptera Hemp & Ingrisch n. sp.

Figures

FIGURE 3. Afroagraecia species. A – D. A. brachyptera n. sp., male face (A), male abdominal apex, dorsal view (B), male subgenital plate (C), lateral view of female ovipositor (D); E. A. sansibara (Redtenbacher), male syntype, abdominal apex, dorsal view; F. A. bloyeti (Brongniart), male abdominal apex, dorsal view.

FIGURE 4. Internal genitalic structures of Agraeciini species. A. Afroanthracites montium, titillators with view on baso-lateral sclerites; B. Afroanthracites montium, titillators in apico-ventral view. C. Afroagraecia brachyptera n. sp., titillators in apicoventral view; D. Afroagraecia brachyptera n. sp., titillators in proximo-dorsal view. Abbreviations: al — apico-lateral sclerite, bl — baso-lateral sclerite, le — lateral extension of titillator, lti — lateral titillator, ti — central titillator (titillator proper), te — testes. Scale bars: 1 mm.