Parotocrania curvata Hennemann & Conle 2024, sp. n.
Creators: name: Hennemann, Frank H.
name: Conle, Oskar V.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Phasmida
Phasmatidae
Parotocrania
Parotocrania curvata

description: Parotocrania curvata sp. n.   
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: 5D1919B3-6DD6-4703-B3F7-E8A27DFA33B4  
(Figs. 47B, 47H, 48F, 48F, 110D)  
 HT, ♂: Peru, Panguana, Rio Lullapichis, rechter Nebenfluss des Rio Pachitea, 9°37’S / 74°56’W, 28–09.-06–10.2000; leg. 28.09.- 06.10.2000, E-g. Burmeister, E. Diller, T. Kothe und W. Schlang [ZSMC].   
 PT, ♂: Equateur, Ishpingo Pachka, Loreto, 300 m, Rec. A. Cahurel, 14–15.IX.2020 [YB]   
 Diagnosis. Males (the only sex known) of this very distinctive and remarkable new species resemble those of P. acutilobata sp. n. in being alate, but by name they differ from this and all other known members of the genus by the prominently curved meso- and metafemora and tibiae. The strongly arcuate mid and hind legs are also true for ♀♀, which however were only examined from a photograph (→ see comments below, Fig. 110D).   
 Etymology. The name (lat. curvatus = curved, arcuate) refers to the strongly curved meso- and metafemora and tibiae of this very disitinctive species. Feminine.   
 Description. ♂♂ (Figs. 47B, 48F): The holotype (Fig. 48F) is fairly incomplete and lacks one front, mid and hind leg as well as the tips of the antennae. The front leg and mesotarsus are detached and glued to a piece of cardboard on the specimen’s pin.   
Medium-sized (body length 85.5–95.9 mm) and moderately slender for the genus, with well-developed alae (46.2 mm) that reach to abdominal segment IV and strongly curved mid and hind legs. Head and thoracic segment wholly unevenly granulose, rugose and tubercular. General colour of head and thorax in the unique holotype pale ochre, the abdomen rather buff and gradually becoming dark brown towards the apex. Head chestnut brown dorsomedially and the genae with faint buff longitudinal streaks on genae. Tegmina chestnut brown basally and gradually becoming dull ochre in the apical half, the central raised portion dark brown. Costal region of alae ochre with faint darker speckles, the anal fan hyaline. Front legs brown and irregularly flecked with ochre, the mid and hind legs almost wholly dark blackish brown with only a few irregular ochre speckles. Probasitarsus mostly ochre, meso- and metabasitarsi blackish brown. Scapus and pedicellus blackish brown, rest of antennae dark straw with a few narrow dark annulae.  
Head (Fig. 48D): Roundly sub-rectangular, scarcely 1.2x longer than wide, flattened, broadest at the eyes and slightly narrowing towards the posterior. Frons with a small median impression. Area between the eyes with two small, spiniform median projections and with two converging carinae just above the yes. Anterior portion of vertex with a pair of low, obtuse swelling; posterior portion flat. Eyes of moderate size, circular in outline, projecting hemispherical and their diameter contained almost 1.7x in length of genae. Antennae at least reaching to posterior margin of abdominal segment III (tips broken in the unique holotype). Scapus strongly compressed dorsoventrally with both lateral margins somewhat rounded and deflexed in the apical half in particular; about 1.5x longer than wide. Pedicellus round in cross-section, weakly inflated and less than two-thirds the length of scapus. III much narrower and slightly longer than pedicellus with the base somewhat widened.  
Thorax: Pronotum elongate, basically rectangular with the anterior margin somewhat widened and the pre-medial section slightly narrowed, as long but narrower than head and 1.7x longer tan wide. Transverse median sulcus shallow, weakly curved and almost expanding over entire width of segment, the medio-longitudinal line moderately impressed. Entire surface irregularly granulose and with two weakly indicated, sub-parallel longitudinal bulges (Fig. 48D). Mesothorax 5.4x longer than prothorax and uniform in width except for a slight widening at the posterior portion. Mesonotum with several irregular and uneven, tubercular, longitudinally directed rugulae, the mesosternum with a median longitudinal keel very weakly indicated by clustered granules. Tegmina ovate with the central protuberance fairly well-developed, obtusely rounded, tectate longitudinally and unevenly rugose in shape. Alae slightly projecting over posterior margin of abdominal tergum V.  
Abdomen: Median segment considerably longer than metanotum and all following segments. II–VII distinctly decreasing in length with II almost 2x longer than VII, all roughly uniform in diameter; II 4x and VII only 2.2x longer than wide. All terga granulose and with a fairly uneven, longitudinal carina close to lateral margins. Sterna granulose. Tergum VIII somewhat widening towards the posterior and about two-thirds the length of VII, IX three-quarters the length of VIII, slightly constricted anteriorly and with the lateral margins weakly deflexed and rounded in the posterior half. Anal segment tectate longitudinally, narrowed in the posterior portion and with the lateral margins excavated sub-posteriorly; the posterior margin narrowly and roundly truncated, the outer angles minutely dentate ventrally. Epiproct minute and wholly concealed by anal segment. Vomer elongate, slender, somewhat arcuate and gradually narrowing towards a pointed and strongly upcurved terminal hook (Fig. 47H). Cerci small, slender and almost cylindrical; not reaching apex of anal segment. Poculum large, bulgy, elongate and reaching two-thirds the way along anal segment; angular in lateral aspect (Fig. 47H), distinctly keeled medio-longitudinally in posterior half and the posterior margin somewhat downcurved and weakly sinuate.  
Legs: Moderately long and slender, the profemora about as long as head, pro- and mesonotum combined, mesofemora roughly as long as mesothorax, metafemora reaching half way along abdominal segment V and metatibiae slightly projecting over apex of abdomen. Mid and hind legs strongly arcuate. Meso- and metafemora with the basal one-third upcurved and the apical two-thirds downcurved; vice versa in corresponding tibiae, which are downcurved in the basal two-thirds and upcurved in the apical one-third; the two ventral carinae of the tibiae weakly deflexed sub-apically. Probasitarsus 1.7x longer than remaining tarsomeres taken together with the dorsal carina strongly raised, lamellate and roughly uniform in height. Meso- and metabasitarsus 1.5x longer than combined length of remaining tarsomeres and with the dorsal carina widely rounded.  
 Comments. An immature ♀ was examined from a photograph taken by Johann Chrétien (France) in Peru (Fig. 110D). The specimen has a lichenose colouration, which is a mixture of various shades of brown, grey and green, with most of the meso- and metathorax pale cream-coloured with a slight greenish wash. The legs show the same conspicuous shape as that seen in the ♂, has two huge, laterally compressed and carinate, anteriorly crenulate and apically pointed and incurved cephalic horns and a very prominent praeopercular organ, that is formed by three large posterior lobes on abdominal sternum VII. In the resting position seen on the picture the downward curved apical two-thirds of the femora and basal two-thirds of the corresponding tibiae form a bow-shaped, almost semi-circular outline, which is very unusual in Phasmatodea and unique within Cladomorphini. Eggs unknown.   
 Table 27: Measurements of Parotocrania curvata sp. n.
description: Published as part of Hennemann, Frank H. & Conle, Oskar V., 2024, Studies on Neotropical Phasmatodea XXVI: Taxonomic review of Cladomorformia tax. n., a lineage of Diapheromerinae stick insects, with the descriptions of seven new genera and 41 new species (Phasmatodea: Occidophasmata: Diapheromerinae), pp. 1-454 in Zootaxa 5444 (1) on pages 138-139, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5444.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/11071464