Steirodontini
Creators: name: Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae

description: Tribe Steirodontini
Originally established by Brunner von Wattenwyl (1878) as Steirodontia group, including Stilpnochlora, Steirodon, Cnemidophyllum (these genera previously divided into several other genera, most of which are actual subgenera with Neotropical distribution. Cnemidophyllum was described by Rehn, 1917), Trigonocorypha Stål, 1873 (now grouped into the tribe Trigonocoryphini Bey-Bienko, 1954, including Cosmozoma Karsch, 1889 and Megotoessa Karsch, 1889, with distribution to the Middle East and Madagascar), and Xantia Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 (currently grouped into the tribe Vossini, including Paraxantia Liu & Kang, 2009 (Xantina), Azamia Bolívar, 1906 and Vossia Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1891 (Vossina); with distribution in Africa and tropical Asia, according to Cadena-Castañeda, 2014d). The species of this large group are known as giant katydids. The fore coxae are armed with a spine, the tympanic organs of the fore tibiae are conchate on both sides and most of the genera and species have the pronotum armed with teeth or thorns. According with Emsley (1970), the extreme similarity of the genera, may be due only to convergence but in a group as conservative as the Orthoptera there may be a much closer relationship between the faunas of the zoogeographical ancient relationship; for that reason, this author grouped only the Neotropical genera within the tribe Steirodiontini. The other authors mentioned previously, grouped the Old World genera in other tribes (Bey-Bienko, 1954; Cadena-Castañeda, 2014d). The characters that distinguish the tribe Steirodiontini are fully given in Emsley’s revision.
According to Emsley's (1970) revision, the tribe Steirodontini is a monophyletic group, confirmed by Naskrecki (2000), both based on morphological phylogenies. Recently Mugleston et al. (2013), showed a paraphyletic origin of the tribe, because in their trees, Stilpnochlora is grouped with some of the genera from the tribe Microcentrini (=Microcentra group: Microcentrum, Syntechna and Acropsis). Possibly morphological and molecular studies, in which more genera or species are included, can change or support the inclusion of Stilpnochlora within Microcentrini.
Trigonocoryphini and Steirodontini in the morphological (Naskrecki, 2000) and molecular phylogeny (Mugleston et al., 2013), have a close relationship, and can be considered a monophyletic clade, with a possible Pangean origin. Vossia (tribe Vossini) in the molecular phylogeny (Mugleston et al., 2013), has a basal position in the clade Phaneropterinae, without any connection to the clade Trigonocoryphini-Steirodontini.
In the following is provided an updated key to the genera of the Steirodontini:
description: Published as part of Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., 2016, New taxa and some clarification of the tribe Steirodontini (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Phaneropterinae): Tenth contribution to the suprageneric organization of Neotropical phaneropterines, pp. 237-248 in Zootaxa 4208 (3) on pages 238-239, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4208.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/205812