Paraxantia nujiangensis Wu & Liu 2023, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wu, Chao
name: Liu, Chun-Xiang
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Paraxantia
Paraxantia nujiangensis

description: Paraxantia nujiangensis Wu & Liu sp. nov. Ǿ江ṂAEǴÃ
Figs. 1D; 3C, F; 4C, F, I; 5E; 6D, F, H; 7.
Type Material. Holotype. 1♁, China: Yunnan Province, Nujiang of the Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Gongshan, Shuang’wa’di; 1800m; 2015.VI. 05–07; Chao Wu leg. (IZCAS). Paratypes. 5♁, ditto (IZCAS); 1♁, China: Yunnan Province, Baoshan, Bai’hua’ling; 1600m; 2021.V. 10; Jia-Zhi Zhang leg. (IZCAS); 1♁, China: Yunnan Province, Nujiang of the Lisu Autonomous Prefecture, Gongshan, Gazu; 27.743°N 98.606°E, 1700m; 15.VII.2022; Qin-Peng Liu leg. (IZCAS).
Description. Male.
Head and pronotum. Normal, very similar to P. angustipennis sp. nov., but more robust. Pronotal disc with a small middle notch on posterior margin, lateral carinae relatively weakly denticulate. (Fig. 3C)
Legs. Fore femur as long as pronotum, slightly widened in apical half, external margin with 6 sparsely arranged spines; fore tibia slightly flat, with 4–5 sparsely arranged small spines; fore tibia with tympanum conchate on both sides, opening of the tympanum very narrow, slit, slight swelling at tympana area (Fig. 5E). Middle femur normal, external margin with about 10 spines. Middle tibia long, thin, with about 3–4 sparsely arranged small spines on external margin. Hind legs elongate, slender; hind femur widened in basal half and gradually narrowed towards apex; external ventral margin with about 25 external spines and 4 internal spines on apical half. Hind tibia slender, not swollen; dorsally bearing 22–26 similar-sized, sloping, close-packed external and 25–27 internal spines.
Wings. Tegmen leaf-like, long, about six times longer than pronotum. Tegmen opaque, with numerous faint cross veinlets (Fig. 1D); widened before middle and tapering towards rounded apex, anterior margin arc-shaped. Costal field widened in basal half and gradually narrowed towards apex. Stridulatory file of left tegmen slender, elongated, cambered; about 4.8–5.1 mm long, with about 120 densely arranged teeth (Fig. 3F). Hind wing projecting beyond tegmen, wide, colorless, transparent except for tip with greenish pale veins.
Abdomen. Similar to P. angustipennis sp. nov.. Cerci robust, hairy, furcated at apex; dorsal furca conical, extending and sloping inwards and upwards, with slightly pointed apex; apical one flat, spoon-shaped; ventral one horizontally extending inwards, abruptly tapering apicad into a long sharp spine (Fig. 4C).
External genitalia. Membranous structure of phallic induration with 3 hardened lobes, densely covered with tiny spines; phallic lobes robust, "L"-shaped, with truncated apex (Fig. 4F). Titillator sclerotized, with two elongated branches; angle among the two branches comparatively small; the lateral keel on branches with small spines (Fig. 4I).
Coloration. Generally fresh green when alive, with some purplish brown spots on lateral surface of meso- and metathorax. Compound eyes yellow. Pronotum with pale yellow stripe along lateral keel, extending to posterior margin of compound eyes. Tegmen green, opaque; veins green. Hind wings hyaline, with green exposed part. Base of fore legs and spines on hind femur yellow. (Fig. 6D)
Female. Unknown.
Measurements (mm). length of pronotum: ♁ 11.2–11.9; length of tegmen: ♁ 64.5–66.0; width of tegmen: ♁ 22.4–24.5; length of anterior femur: ♁ 10.1–10.8; length of middle femur: ♁ 14.2–15.1; length of posterior femur: ♁ 27.6–28.3.
Etymology. The new species is named after the type locality “Nujiang” (the name of the Salween River in China) and the Latin adjectival suffix “-ensis”, meaning “belonging to”.
Discussion. The new species is very similar to Paraxantia daweishanensis Liu, 2014, but differs in the stridulatory file and the titillator of the male external genitalia. The stridulatory file of left tegmen carries about 70 teeth in P. daweishanensis, but with about 120 teeth in P. nujiangensis sp. nov. (Fig. 3F). The two branches of titillator are long, angles between which are large in P. daweishanensis (Fig. 4J), but they are much longer, angles between which are narrower in P. nujiangensis sp. nov. (Fig. 4I).
Distribution. China: WN-Yunnan, Nujiang river basin.
description: Published as part of Wu, Chao & Liu, Chun-Xiang, 2023, The genus Paraxantia Liu & Kang (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae Vosiini) in Himalaya-Hengduan Mountains, revealing high diversity of species, pp. 367-376 in Zootaxa 5306 (3) on pages 370-373, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5306.3.4, http://zenodo.org/record/8063069