Digentia punctatissima
Creators: name: Oumarou Ngoute, Charly
name: Rowell, C. H. F.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2025
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Acrididae
Digentia
Digentia punctatissima

description: Digentia punctatissima (Stål, 1875)
Figs 1, 2, 3, 6 A, 10 E
= Oxya punctatissima Stål, 1875 (syn. Bolívar, 1905)
Type material. —
Holotype: ♂; Africa, West-Central Tropical Africa; NHRS Stockholm.
Material examined. —
We studied the existing documents and images of the species: the original description of Oxya punctatissima by Stål 1875, and that of Digentia punctatissima by Ramme 1929; Daniel Otte’s photograph of the holotype (Fig. 2) (from Cigliano et al. 2023), and the epiphallus of the holotype drawn (Fig. 3) by Hollis (Hollis 1975 figured the epiphalli of D. punctatissima and D. rufogeniculata but did not describe them).
Description. —
(derived from Stål 1875 and Ramme 1929). Male and female: Body of medium size (L: male = 18.6 mm, female = 23.8 mm); fastigium about as long as wide, trapezoid in front; antennae broken. Pronotal disc, metanotum, and abdominal terga, especially the basal ones, finely rugose, pronotal lobes very shiny; prozona of the pronotum somewhat inflated upwards; hind tibia with tipped spines. Posterior margins of the tenth abdominal tergite produced laterally into lobes and curved upwards (see fig. 39 of Ramme 1929, our Fig. 10 A); supra-anal plate apically somewhat produced, tongue shaped, with a weak basal longitudinal furrow; cerci flat or compressed, wide, finely rugose, ventrally produced and pointed, dorsally with a sharp corner (see fig. 39 of Ramme 1929, our Fig. 10 A, E).
Phallic complex. Epiphallus (fig. 3, from Hollis 1975) with wide bridge, slightly but incompletely divided medially, anterior margin incurved, posterior margin straight; a pair of large subconical outer lophi with tip rounded and curved upward and characteristic wide medial furrow; inner lophi weak, lobiform; anterior processes strongly developed and incurved.
Coloration. The coloration of the female (fig. 2. Daniel Otte’s photograph, in Cigliano et al. 2023) is based on a specimen that is nearly 200 years old; all other species of the genus are basically green, suggesting that D. punctatissima was also. Antennae (broken) black; frons and genae yellow-brown, the former tinted olive above the clypeus; shiny black band behind the eyes that runs over the pronotal lobes then narrowing over the thoracic pleura and the first 2 / 3 of the abdominal tergites; the yellow-brown part of the genae continues rearwards over the pronotal lobes but is interrupted by a triangular black mark that joins dorsally with the pronotal black band (Fig. 6 A); rear of head dirty olive-green. Pronotal lobes very shiny; pronotal disc, metanotum, thoracic pleura, and abdominal tergites dirty olive-green. Sulci on pronotal disc black, on the lobes, only the middle sulcus is filled with black; small dark yellow spot at the front of the black band across the lobes. Underside of thorax and abdomen dark red; front and middle legs dirty olive, yellowish basally; hind femur dark olive, ventral carina yellowish, knee region black, hind tibia blackish-olive with dirty yellow, black spines; hind tarsi light-brown.
Dimensions. P: male = 4 mm, female = 5.6 mm; L: male = 18.6 mm, female = 23.8 mm; F: male = 12.2 mm, female = 16.2 mm; EL: male = 10.8 mm, female = 14.1 mm (from Ramme 1929).
Distribution. —
In the original description of D. punctatissima, Stål (1875) gives “ Africa occidentalis ” as provenance. Cigliano et al. (2023) shows a distribution map that seems to indicate that the species is found in Equatorial Guinea, DR Congo, Congo Republic, Central African Republic, Gabon, and Cameroon, but gives no specific localities or references. Johnston (1956) also cites Equatorial Guinea and DR Congo without specific localities. The Equatorial Guinea locality is from Ramme’s 1929 description of the male allotype: Rio San Benito, Rio Muni. We know of no Cameroonian specimen (Fig. 1).
description: Published as part of Oumarou Ngoute, Charly & Rowell, C. H. F., 2025, Review of the African genus Digentia Stål, 1878 (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Oxyinae), pp. 11-30 in Journal of Orthoptera Research 34 (1) on pages 11-30, DOI: 10.3897/jor.34.126949