Libanasa kilomeni Hemp & Johns, 2015, n. sp.
Creators: name: Hemp, Claudia
name: Johns, Peter M.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2015
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Chorotypidae
Libanasa
Libanasa kilomeni

description: Libanasa kilomeni n. sp. Hemp & Johns
(Figs. 1–9)
http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:471994
Holotype male (Fig. 1). Tanzania, North Pare Mountains, Kindoroko forest reserve, 7°50'44.5"S 36°53'00.2"E, montane forest, 1750 m, January 2015; depository Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.
Paratypes female (Fig. 2), 1 male nymph, 1 female nymph (Fig. 3), same data as holotype, depository Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.
Description male. Colour. Living animals yellow to reddish-brown, dark brown on posterior margins of tergites; hind femora bright yellow in living animals, slightly darkening to yellow-brown on the dorsum and apex (Fig. 1) while preserved animals are of darker brown colour.
Body smooth, shining (Fig. 1); Head and antennae. Fastigium verticis laterally compressed where scapus is inserted, lateral ocelli bright white (Figs. 1, 4), medial ocellus, large and oval, creamy white. Antennae: scape swollen on inner side, 2nd and 3rd units fused, the 3rd elongate, 21–23 basal antennomeres almost bare, others pilose. Mandibles: no ventral process extending ventrad beside labial base in front of lacinia base. Maxillary palps: MP4 comparatively short, little swollen and little pilose. MP5 long and slender, fully pilose. Thorax and legs. As in L. brachyura all nota with narrow marginal rim; ventral edge of mesepipleuron forming a weakly projecting rounded flap.
Stridulatory organ: Male: T1–T2 smooth, T3 with 20–30, T4 with 10–15 and T5–6 with fewer than 10 short pegs scattered over lateral surface, remaining tergites laterally without pegs. Pleural surfaces with very few points; adjacent surface of hind femur smooth, lacking spinules or ridges. Coxal spines (on fore and mid coxa) with broad base, pointed. Front leg: coxal inner margin smooth without blunt projection as in L. brachyura; femur unarmed; tibia with ovoid tympanum on both sides, and slightly swollen nearby with a long, moveable dorsal spine near tympanum; ventrally double row of 4–5 long spines; two pairs of spurs apically of which inner pair longer. Middle leg: Femur unarmed, tibia dorsally with 2 pairs of symmetrical arranged movable spines, apically pair of spurs; ventrally three pairs of symmetrically arranged short spines and apical pair of spurs. Hind leg: femur unarmed, broad at base narrowing to a long almost cylindrical neck, the ventral ridges being reduced; outer surface of hind femur with 14 chevron ridges; tibia with 11–12 pairs of small, sharp fixed dorsal spines, ventral side of hind tibiae unarmed. Apically two pairs of spurs dorsally and ventrally, fully moveable within insertion rings; dorsal subapical pair, shorter with inner spur longer, apical pair very long with inner spur as long as metatarsus (Fig. 9). Ventral pairs shorter with apical pair slightly longer than subapical pair.
Prosternum with pair of short cone-like processes. Mesosternum bispinose, spines horizontally compressed, apices bent slightly backwards. Metasternum with thorn-like processes with acute backwards bent tips and a broad laterally compressed base.
Abdomen. Cerci: long, thin and narrowing to a sharp, setose apex (Fig. 1, 5 C; 6A). Ninth abdominal tergite almost evenly rounded posteriorly, medially sclerotized, rugose; two anteriad oriented processes from posterior margin of 10th abdominal tergite hooked over margin of 9th posterior margin (Fig. 5 A, C). Subgenital plate medially incised with conical styli (Fig. 5 E).
Female. Habitus as male with long, slightly up-curved ovipositor (Fig. 7 A). Subgenital plate broadly triangular (Fig. 7 B), medially with acute point (Fig. 8 A). Stridulatory organ of female with fewer pegs on T3 and 4 and very few on T5 and 6.
Measurements. Male holotype: body length 28 mm, antennae ca. 55 m, pronotum 7.5 mm, hind femur 22.5 mm, hind tibia 21.5 mm; tarsus 7 mm; male cerci 5 mm.
Female paratype: body length 28 mm; antennae ca. 55 mm; pronotum 8.6 mm; hind femur 26.5 mm; ovipositor 20 mm.
Distribution. Tanzania, North Pare Mountains (Fig. 10).
Habitat. Montane forest (Fig. 11).
Biology. Carnivorous nocturnal species found on the forest ground or on leaves of the undergrowth. It is only present during the warm period of the year (approximately November-March) and in low densities.
Diagnosis. L. kilomeni n. sp. is easily distinguished from L. brachyura by its smaller size. The prosternum in L. brachyura has very short and stout processes which, in L. kilomeni n. sp., are more pronounced and cone-like. The metasternum in L. brachyura is also bispinose with spines laterally compressed but the apices are not as strongly bent backwards as in L. kilomeni n. sp. The mesosternum in L. brachyura is similarly shaped as in L. kilomeni n. sp. however with stouter processes. The 9th abdominal tergite is medially incised in L. brachyura (Fig. 5 B; 6B), whereas, it is evenly rounded in L. kilomeni n. sp. (Fig. 5 A). Small differences are also seen in the male subgenital plate (Fig. 5 C, D). In L. kilomeni n. sp. the styli are larger and the median incision more pronounced than in L. brachyura (Fig. 5 E, F). Details of the internal male structures could not be compared as they were not exerted in the holotype and dissection was considered too damaging (cf Figs. 6 A, B). Female differences are present in the subgenital plate. It is triangular with an acute median tip in L. kilomeni n. sp. (Fig. 8 A) whereas it is blunt in L. brachyura (Fig. 8 B).
Etymology. Named after the village Kilomeni located beneath Kindoroko forest reserve in the North Pare Mountains.
description: Published as part of Hemp, Claudia & Johns, Peter M., 2015, Libanasa kilomeni, a new species of East African Lutosinae (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), pp. 435-443 in Zootaxa 4032 (4) on pages 435-439, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4032.4.8, http://zenodo.org/record/253380