Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Rehn & Hebard 1915
Creators: name: Fontana, Paolo
name: Mariño-Pérez, Ricardo
name: Woller, Derek A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Coleoptera
Dryophthoridae
Conocephalus
Conocephalus leptopterus

description: Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Rehn & Hebard, 1915
http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:17163 Figs. 1, 2, 6, 7, 14–22; Table 2
Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Rehn, J.A.G. & Hebard. 1915. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 41(2):287.
Conocephalus leptopterus Hebard. 1932. Trans. Amer. Entomol. Soc. 58(3):336.
Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Otte, D. 1997. Orthoptera Species File 7:39.
Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus García-García & Fontana. 2006. Entomología Mexicana 5(2):251.
Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus García-García & Fontana. 2008. Guía para el reconocimiento y estudio de los chapulines del Parque Nacional “El Cimatario”, Querétaro. 48 pp.
Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Fontana, Buzzetti & Mariño-Pérez. 2008. Chapulines, Langostas, Grillos y Esperanzas de México. Guía fotográfica - Grasshoppers, Locusts, Crickets & Katydids of Mexico. Photographic guide. p. 62.
Description (of male except where specified—main body measurements of examined specimens are given in Table 2.).
(1) Total length: from vertex to apex of hind femur.
(2) Tegmina length: exposed portion in lateral view (starting at costal vein in males).
Head. Fastigium from above subrectangular, 2.5 times as long as wide and about 0.7 times as wide as scape, forming a rounded line with occiput. Ventral side of fastigium of vertex rounded, hardly protruding over the separation with frons; frons weakly convex. Eyes small relative to head size, well-protruding and tegument of head smooth (Figures 14 B and 15B & D) with face oval and mandibles symmetrical.
Thorax. Dorsal surface of pronotum smooth, concave with anterior and posterior margin weakly concave; transversal section of pronotum cylindrical; lateral carinae absent (Figures 14 B and 15B & D). Lateral lobes subtriangular with posterior margin almost straight; humeral sinus not deep. Anterior margin of lateral lobes convex. Fairly linear sulcus at posterior end of the second third. Thoracic auditory spiracle large, elliptical, and almost completely hidden under lateral lobe of pronotum. Prosternum armed with two thin, cylindrical, widelyseparated spines; meso- and metasternum with lateral lobes of basisterna subtriangular, emarginated.
Wings. In both sexes, wings absent, Tegmina strongly reduced. Male tegmina subtriangular, rounded at apex, hardly surpassing the end of the first abdominal tergite (Figure 14 A & B); female tegmina extremely reduced and as small as eyes, separated, lateral (Figure 15 A–D). Stridulatory apparatus of male well-developed; stridulatory file and scraper both short and with the former consisting of 37 thin and narrow tooth ordered in a gently sinuous line (Figures 14 C and 16A & B) and 43 on the latter ordered in a sinusoidal line (Figures 14 D and 17A & B). Mirror of right tegmina subquadrate (Figure 14 D).
Legs. All legs thin (Figures 14 A and 15A & C), fore coxae with elongated, forward-projecting spine located dorsally. Fore and mid femora completely lacking spines except for genicular lobes and fore and mid tibia armed only ventrally with 8 coupled sets of thin and dark spines. Hind femur without consistent genicular spines; hind tibiae armed dorsally with strong black spines on apical portion along ¾ of total length and also armed ventrally with thin dark spines at apical portion along 1/3 of total length. Tympanum of fore tibia bilaterally closed with tympanal slit facing forward; tympanal area weakly swollen.
Abdomen and terminalia. Dorsal surface of abdominal tergites smooth, unmodified. 10th tergite in male protruding in a subtriangular expansion formed by two digitiform-joined portions (Figures 18 A & B). Supra-anal plate poorly developed in both sexes. Male cercus very peculiar, subtrapezoidal, with a short, rounded, subtriangular apical tooth, a long, thin, incurved subapical spine and, posteriorly to the latter, an upcurved, sigmoid, short spine (Figures 18 B & C).
Male subgenital plate with a pair of styli, concave, with rounded posterior margin. Female cercus subconical, slender and straight. Male titillators extremely simple, consisting of two small, semicircular, and upcurved toothless bands (Figure 19 A & B). Ovipositor twice as long as female abdomen and straight with upper and lower margins almost parallel; acute apex (Figures 15 A & C and 20A–C).
Coloration. Live (Figures 6 and 7 A & B) and dried, mounted specimens (Figures 14 A and 15A & C) are light green or yellow with a dorsal longitudinal brown band.
Remarks. Rehn and Hebard (1915) were apparently unable to obtain and describe a male of this species. Photographs of the type specimen (female) (Figure 2 A–D) as well as digital copies of Rehn and Hebard’s (1915) original description (Figure 21 A & B) and drawings (Figure 22 A & B) are also provided here for comparison and for the sake of completeness in terms of updating the description for this species.
The subgenus Aphauropus Rehn & Hebard, 1915 was defined based on the presence of a single pair of spurs at the distal extremity of the hind tibiae (Figures 21 A & B and 22A). The small size and extremely reduced tegmina of this species means that it can be easily confused with immature individuals of other related taxa.
Ecology. Nymphs of the species are active from August to November while adults are active from August to December (Figure 6 B). This species lives in meadows in wooded reforested habitats (García-García & Fontana, 2008) (Figure 6 A).
Material examined. 1 female holotype. Mexico, Nayarit. Tepic (ANSP) (Figure 2 A–D). 2 males and 2 females. Mexico, Querétaro, Parque Nacional El Cimatario, 20°32’ N; 100° 31’ W, 2150 m.a.s.l. 18.XI.2006, Collected by: P. L. García-García (CPF); 2 males and 1 female Mexico, Querétaro, Parque Nacional El Cimatario, 20°32’ N; 100° 31’ W, 2150 m.a.s.l. 3–4.XII.2005, Collected by: P. Fontana and P. L. García-García (CPF); 4 males and 1 female Mexico, Jalisco, Guadalajara, 1 km NW Jocotepec, road 15, 20°17’N; 103° 27’ W, 1585 m.a.s.l. 14.X.2004, Collected by: P. Fontana, R. Battiston, B. Agabiti and P. L. García-García (CPF) (Figure 1).
Subfamily Phaneropterinae Burmeister, 1838
Tribe Insarini Rehn and Hebard, 1914
Insara Walker, 1869
Insara acutitegmina Fontana, Buzzetti, Mariño-Pérez & García García 2011 http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:8687 Figs. 5, 23–26; Table 2
Insara sp. Fontana, Buzzetti & Mariño-Pérez. 2008. Chapulines, Langostas, Grillos y Esperanzas de México. Guía fotográfica - Grasshoppers, Locusts, Crickets & Katydids of Mexico. Photographic guide, pp. 89–90.
Insara acutitegmina Fontana, Buzzetti, Mariño-Pérez & García García. 2011. Zootaxa 2879:23.
Insara acutitegmina is a short-winged Tettigonidae from Mexico, recently described using only male specimens (Fontana et al., 2011) (Figure 23). Recently-collected material from Mexico by the authors provided further specimens from geographically-close localities and included female specimens as well. The description of the female of this species completes the morphological knowledge of this interesting taxon.
Female description. Head. Fastigium of vertex narrow, laterally compressed, subhorizontal, with a marked medio-longitudinal sulcation in anterior portion; sides divergent posteriorly; fastigium of vertex in contact with facial fastigium; both anteriorly flat when viewed laterally (Figures 24 B and 25B). Eyes oval in lateral view, highly prominent from above. Antennae filiform, very long, thickened basally with 2nd antennal joint slightly more than half as long as 1st joint (Figures 24 A and 25A). Dorsal portion of pronotum constricted medially; disk flattened, with distinct lateral carinae; posterior margin wider than anterior one, gently convex and slightly incised in the middle (Figures 24 B and 25B); lateral lobes angularly inserted into disc, caudal margin of lobes sinuate and humeral sinus marked.
Wings and legs. Tegmina abbreviate, about half of hind femur length, narrowly tapering, and with rounded apex. Wings present and slightly shorter than tegmina. Fore and middle femora apically carinate dorsally; genicular lobes of hind femora armed with only one spine with rounded apex. Fore tibiae with basal extremity highly swollen, narrowing below tympanum, which is open on both sides (Figures 24 A and 25A).
Abdomen and terminalia. Abdomen dilated; tergites dorsally angulated in the middle of posterior margin; last abdominal tergite depressed in the middle. Cerci conical, stout, 2.5 times as long as wide at base (Figure 26 A & B). Subgenital plate subtriangular, elongated, with narrow truncate apex; a barely detectable rounded expansion showing at each side. Ovipositor gradually upcurved; dorsal valvae slightly longer than ventral and both acutely pointed; apical portion of both valvae denticulate (Figure 26 A–C).
Coloration. Two color morphs: brown (Figures 5 A and 24A & B) and green (Figures 5 B and 25A & B). Brown form. General body color brown, pronotal disk with dark lateral spots at anterior and posterior margins; postocular region with disintegrating dark bands. First abdominal tergite with two dorsolateral subrectangular dark spots; second to fourth abdominal tergites with median blackish band, increasing in size from 2nd to 4th, laterally outlined by a thin whitish line. Green form. General body color light green with dark spots and bands more or less as in brown form, but less defined on head and pronotum.
Remarks. The two female forms share the main morphological characters, especially in the shape and size of the head, pronotum, and tegmina shape as well as the peculiar dorsal pattern on the abdomen. The female of Insara acutitegmina is distinct from the female of I. oaxacae for two main reasons: 1) tegmina length is as long as in the male and 2) its terminalia curve upwards gently while I. oaxacae ’s terminalia curve upwards sharply. The two new localities provided do not modify the distribution of the species, which is restricted to Chiapas, Mexico (Figure 1).
Material examined. 2 males. Mexico, Chiapas, 15 km NW of Comitan, near San Francisco, on Highway 190 Comitán-San Cristóbal de Las Casas. 16°22.437’ N; 92°13.769’ W. 1936 m.a.s.l. Grassland in a Pine Forest. 2 males and 2 females. Mexico, Chiapas, Teopisca. 16°31.754’ N; 92°26.859’ W. 1816 m.a.s.l. Grassland in a Pine Forest. Both localities 7-XII-2011. Collected by: Paolo Fontana, Ricardo Mariño-Pérez, Derek A. Woller, and Paola Tirello (Figure 1). (1 male and 1 female at UCFC and 3 males and 1 female at CPF).
Ecology. Adults of the species have been found in dense grasses within pine and oak forests.
description: Published as part of Fontana, Paolo, Mariño-Pérez, Ricardo & Woller, Derek A., 2013, Studies in Mexican Tettigoniidae: A new genus of Copiphorini and the first description of male Conocephalus (Aphauropus) leptopterus Rehn and Hebard and the female of Insara acutitegmina Fontana, Buzzetti, Mariño-Pérez & García García, pp. 429-453 in Zootaxa 3737 (4) on pages 442-451, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3737.4.6, http://zenodo.org/record/248372