Dravidacris annamalaica, Bhaskar & Sankararaman & Kasalo, 2022

Bhaskar, Dhaneesh, Sankararaman, H. & Kasalo, Niko, 2022, Dravidacris annamalaica gen. et sp. nov. a new pygmy unicorn grasshopper (Orthoptera: Tetrigidae) from South India, Zootaxa 5196 (3), pp. 420-432 : 425

Dravidacris annamalaica gen. et sp. nov.

Type material. Holotype 1 ♀, Original label: Annamalai Nagar , Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, South India, 13/ xii/2020. Col Sankararaman H (NCBS, Accession number NRC-AA-4180).

Type locality. The specimen of Dravidacris gen. nov. was collected from a garden-land, semi-urban forest with a sandy surface in the Annamalai Nagar, Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, South India ( N 11023 ’09.37” E 79043 ’24.73”) ( Fig 1 ). The vegetation mainly constituted tropical dry evergreen forest along the east coast of Tamil Nadu, South India. The habitat is primarily occupied by trees such as Samanea saman (monkey pod tree/rain tree), Peltophorum pterocarpum (copperpod), Cocus nucifera (coconut), Millingtonia hortensis (Indian cork tree), Millettia pinnata (pongam) and Tamarindus indica (Tamarind) . It also comprises several perennial shrub weeds like Ricinus communis (castor), Chromolaena odorata ( Siam weed), Lantana camara (wild-sage), Tecoma stans (yellow bells) and evergreen vine Epipremnum aureum (golden pothos) spreading on the trunks of the rain tree. The majority of the forest floors consist of grass species, Cynodon dactylon ( Bermuda grass) and perennial herb Boerhavia diffusa (spreading hogweed).

Figures

FIGURE 1. Map showing the type location of Dravidacris annamalaica gen. et sp. nov. in India.