Neoaclini Desutter, 1988

Desutter-Grandcolas, Laure, 2014, New taxa and data for Neotropical Phalangopsidae (Orthoptera, Grylloidea), Zootaxa 3866 (3), pp. 398-420 : 413

Neoaclini Desutter, 1988

Neoaclini Desutter, 1987 (invalid)— Desutter 1988: 350. Neoaclina Gorochov 2011: 682 .

Type genus. Neoacla Desutter, 1988

The neotropical clade Neoaclini is well-characterized by morphological and genitalic characters ( Desutter, 1988). It is also very well separated both from Strogulomorphini Desutter, 1988 and from the genus group Aclodae. Confusion exists however today between these groups, because some genera have been badly defined from the start, and because new taxa have been described without clear separation from available taxa. In particular, it is necessary to clarify the diagnosis and status of the genera Heterogryllus Saussure, 1878 , Acla Hebard, 1928 and Uvaroviella Chopard, 1923 .

As noted previously (see above), the characters given by Saussure for the genus Heterogryllus clearly show that it belongs to the Neoaclini , especially the number of subapical spurs of hind tibia and the serrulation of basitarsomere III. The two other species have been described in this genus, Heterogryllus crassicornis Saussure, 1878 and Heterogryllus bordoni Chopard, 1970 , do not belong to Neoaclini but to the Aclodae group (see above and Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992b).

As a consequence of the synonymy between Acla and Aclodes , all the Neoaclini species described in the genus Acla have to be transferred either to the genus Neoacla , or to the genus Superacla Gorochov, 2009 n . stat., initially described as a subgenus of Neoacla . The species which do not belong to the Neoaclini but have been described or transferred to Acla are not concerned here and will have to be transferred in other genera.

Phylogenetic relationships. The phylogeny of Chintauan-Marquier et al. (submit.) obtained paraphyletic Neoaclini , due to the position of the two strogulomorphine genera used for the analysis: the clade including the Neoaclini and Strogulomorphini taxa is however monophyletic. This clade includes only Neotropical genera, and is the sister group of Rumea Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 , and ( Paragryllus Guérin-Méneville, 1844 — Silvastella Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 ) respectively. The paleotropical and oceanian genera which have been assumed close to the Neoaclini , i.e. Paragryllodes Karny, 1909 , and ( Caltathra Otte, 1986 — Protathra Desutter-Grandcolas, 1997 ), are also found in the same wide clade. This clade will probably reveal much wider than presently sampled: it may include at least some of the Australian genera currently classified in the Endacustini , as these are close to Caltathra and Protathra (see Desutter-Grandcolas, 2002). The position of the African genus Phaeophilacris Walker, 1871 , as documented by molecular evidence, does not corroborate however a close relationship with these taxa, as proposed in the current definition of the Endacustini .