Dinarippiger Skejo, Kasalo, Fontana et Tvrtkovic 2023, gen. nov.
Creators: name: Skejo, Josip
name: Kasalo, Niko
name: Fontana, Paolo
name: Ivković, Slobodan
name: Tvrtković, Nikola
name: Rebrina, Fran
name: Adžić, Karmela
name: Buzzetti, Filippo Maria
name: Ćato, Sebastian
name: Deranja, Maks
name: Gomboc, Stanislav
name: Scherini, Roberto
name: Škorput, Jadranka
name: Veenvliet, Paul
name: Vuković, Marijana
name: Lemonnier-Darcemont, Michèle
name: Darcemont, Christian
name: Heller, Klaus-Gerhard
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Dinarippiger

description: Genus Dinarippiger Skejo, Kasalo, Fontana et Tvrtković gen. nov.
Etymology. The generic name Dinarippiger derives from the words “ Dinara ”, the mountain between Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina after which the Dinaric Alps were named, and “ Ephippiger ”, the name of the genus type species has belonged to hitherto. The word “ ephippiger ” originates from the Ancient Greek word ἐφίππιον (ephippion), meaning saddle, and suffix “-ger, -gera, -gerum” meaning “-bearing”, originating from the Latin verb “gero” meaning “to carry”. The word for “saddle” also originates from two words, the adjective ἐπῐì (epí, meaning “on”) and ἵππος (híppos, meaning “horse”). The genus name is of the masculine gender.
Type species. Ephippiger discoidalis Fieber, 1853, here designated; type species by original designation, but also by original monotypy.
Diagnosis. The new genus is similar to Ephippiger (type species Gryllus ephippiger Fiebig, 1784 = Ephippiger ephippiger) and Uromenus (type species Ephippiger rugosicollis Serville, 1838 = Uromenus rugosicollis) and is intermediate in certain characters. From Ephippiger taxa, Dinarippiger gen. nov. can be separated by the following characters: 1) Red coloration of occiput directly adjacent to the prozona of the pronotum (black coloration in Ephippiger). 2) Basal color of the tegmina black, with a wide white line just anterior to the caudal margin of the tegmen (basal color uniformly brown in Ephippiger). 3) Cerci with bilobate tip, inner lobe almost as developed as the outer one (outer one ostensibly more developed in Ephippiger). 4) Metazona of the pronotum shorter and less elevated than in Ephippiger. From Uromenus taxa, Dinarippiger gen. nov. can be distinguished by the following set of characteristics: 1) Bright red coloration of the occiput (in Uromenus blue, yellow, orange, or reddish, but never vivid red). 2) Large part of the tegmina is visible (in Uromenus tegmina are mostly covered by the pronotum). 3) Tegmina with numerous small black dots on the dorsal margin forming a continuous black line (in Uromenus there are large black dots separated by white areas). 4) Ovipositor is typically long and straight (short and decurved ovipositor in Uromenus), but its length is highly variable among different populations. Furthermore, Dinarippiger gen. nov. males have trapezoidal and bilobate epiproct, while Uromenus and Ephippiger males have rounded or square epiproct, rarely weakly bilobate. In addition to the above-mentioned differences, it is important to note that abdominal tergites in Dinarippiger gen. nov. typically have black and white markings, which are not present in Uromenus and Ephippiger. Visually similar to Dinarippiger gen. nov. is Uromenus annae (Targioni-Tozzetti, 1881) endemic to Sardinia, in which males also have red occiput (in females, however, occiput coloration is dark), short metazona, ornamented abdomen, but short and decurved ovipositor typical of Uromenus, and distinct cerci (compare Buzzetti et al. 2019).
Composition and distribution. The new genus includes a single species to date, Dinarippiger discoidalis (Fieber, 1853) comb. nov. inhabiting the karst of Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Albania. The genus inhabits the area between the distribution areas of the genera Ephippiger and Uromenus. Uromenus inhabits the area south of Dinarippiger gen. nov. distribution, with the closest populations in southern Italy, and a single isolated population in Albania (Fig. 3). The distribution area of Dinarippiger gen. nov. borders/ overlaps with that of E. ephippiger in the central part of the Dinaric Alps (nearest known localities of Ephippiger are shown in Fig. 10). In Slovenia and Croatian Istria, the distributions of E. ephippiger or E. persicarius and D. discoidalis comb. nov. may overlap due to the mosaic composition of Mediterranean and continental habitats (Fig. 10).
description: Published as part of Skejo, Josip, Kasalo, Niko, Fontana, Paolo, Ivković, Slobodan, Tvrtković, Nikola, Rebrina, Fran, Adžić, Karmela, Buzzetti, Filippo Maria, Ćato, Sebastian, Deranja, Maks, Gomboc, Stanislav, Scherini, Roberto, Škorput, Jadranka, Veenvliet, Paul, Vuković, Marijana, Lemonnier-Darcemont, Michèle, Darcemont, Christian & Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, 2023, Dinarippiger gen. nov. (Tettigoniidae: Bradyporinae: Ephippigerini), a new saddle bush-cricket genus for Ephippiger discoidalis Fieber, 1853 from the Dinaric karst, pp. 49-90 in Zootaxa 5271 (1) on pages 53-54, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5271.1.2, http://zenodo.org/record/7864189