Sishiniheia de Mello & Souza-Dias, n. gen.
Creators: name: Souza Dias, Pedro G. B.
name: Mello, Francisco De Assis Ganeo De
name: Vieira, Lelisberto Baldo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2016
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Phalangopsidae
Sishiniheia

description: Sishiniheia de Mello & Souza-Dias n. gen.
Etymology. Taxon named after Brazilian entomologist Silvio Shigueo Nihei.
Type species. Sishiniheia diamantina de Mello & Souza-Dias, n. sp.
Diagnosis. Head and pronotum with few bristles. Metanotum with glandular area composed of two rounded, whitish humps. Male FWs coriaceous, glabrous, somewhat reduced, internal margins of left and right ones touching but not overlapping, distal margins round, bearing a conspicuous yellowish border (Figs. 1 A–C), stridulatory file or any specialized veins or areas for sound production and propagation absent; thick longitudinal venation present, perpendicular veinlets weak; glandular thickening under posterior margins absent; hind wings absent. Male genitalia. Ventral projection of the pseudepiphallus present, almost reaching the PsP1; pseudepiphallic arms thin, the apex pointed and curved inwards; rami elongated; PsP2 located between the pseudepiphallic arms, highly sclerotized, large and conspicuous, with two projections curved inwards, resembling a “C”. Female. Larger and more robust than male; FW’s even more reduced than those of male.
Description. Occiput and vertex without bristles (Fig. 1 B). Fastigium below vertex level, wider than long, slightly narrowed toward the apex, and narrower than scape (Figs. 1 B, D, E).Maxillary palpi dark brown, thin, long, specially joints 3 to 5; apical third of joint 5 curved, the apex whitish (Figs. 1 D, E, H); antenomeres medium brown, with interspersed light brown antenomeres. Three large, circular ocelli present (Figs. 1 D, E, H). Dorsal disk of pronotum wider than long (Figs. 1 B, E), its cephalic and caudal margins sub-straight (Fig. 1 B); ventro-cephalic angle of lateral lobes rounded, ventro-caudal margin gradually ascendant (Fig. 1 E). TIII sub-apical spurs 4/4, with serrulation between and above them; apical spurs 3/3, more developed on inner face; inner apical spurs: dorsal one the longest (iad), median slightly shorter (iam), ventral the smallest (iav) (iad>iam>iav); outer apical spurs: dorsal one the longest (oad), median slightly shorter (oam), ventral the smallest (oav) (oad>oam>oav).
Male. Metanotum with glandular area composed of two rounded projections (Figs. 1 F, G; 4 A–D); metanotal structures: a pair of projections, and a pair of fossae (Figs. 4 A–D). Male FWs coriaceous, glabrous, reduced, without stridulatory file or specialized veins for sound production (Figs. 1 A, B, E); longitudinal venation thick, perpendicular venation weak (Figs. 1 B, E); glandular thickening absent. Hind wings absent. Supra-anal plate as in Fig. 1 K; shield-shaped. Subgenital plate pubescent, concave, posterior margin as in Fig. 1 L.
Male genitalia. Pseudepiphallus: pseudepiphallic sclerite transverse; pseudepiphallic sclerite constricted on its median part, with a small apodeme (Figs. 2 A, 3A); pseudepiphallic arms thin, with pointed apex, its distal half curved inwards (Figs. 2 A–C, 3A–D). Pseudepiphallic ventral projection present, weak sclerotized, almost reaching the small PsP1, and linked to it by a membrane (Figs. 2 B, C, 3B, C). Rami elongated, not directly connected to the pseudepiphallic sclerite, longer than the pseudepiphallic arms and ectophallic apodeme (Figs. A–B, 3A–B). Pseudepiphallic parameres 2 (PsP2) located between the pseudepiphallic arms, well developed, and highly sclerotized (Figs. 2 A–B, 3A–C); PsP2 with two projections curved inwards, resembling a “C” (Figs. 2 A, C). Pseudepiphallic parameres 1 (PsP1) small, linked to the pseudepiphallic ventral projection by a membrane (Figs. 2 B, 3B). Ectophallic invagination: ectophallic apodemes short (Figs. 2 A, 3A); ectophallic arc straight, located right below the median part of the pseudepiphallic sclerite, in dorsal view (Figs. 2 A, 3A); dorsal projections of the ectophallic invagination absent; ventral projections of the ectophallic invagination longer than the ectophallic apodemes (Figs. 2 B, 3B); ectophallic fold completely membranous. Endophallus: endophallic sclerite and apodeme up-curved (Fig. 2 A–C, 3A–C), bearing a small endophallic crest; pair of lamellar apodemes very reduced in comparison to those of related genera (see below) (Figs. 2 B, C).
Female. Larger than male; general coloration medium brown, marbled (Fig 1 C). Female FWs similar to those of male but even more reduced, also with thick longitudinal venation, internal margins of left and right wings not touching each other (Fig. 1 C). Subgenital plate short, distal margin bilobate (Fig. 1 J). Supra-anal as in Fig. 1 I, its distal margin rounded.
Female genitalia. Copulatory papilla longer than wide, apex and basis rounded as in Figs. 2 D–F.
Systematic relationships. Sishiniheia n. gen. was compared to Guabamima de Mello, 1992, Mellopsis Mews & Sperber, 2010, and Pizacris Souza-Dias & Desutter-Grandcolas, 2015. All these genera share similar morphological characters, mainly regarding male genitalia, as the great development of the PsP2, and the elongated rami. In Guabamima and Sishiniheia n. gen. the pseudepiphallic arms are lateral, pointed, not tubular; in Pizacris and Mellopsis, the pseudepiphallic arms are ventrally-oriented. The phylogenetic relationships among these genera, however, are unknown; a cladistic analysis of Neotropical Luzarinae, with the inclusion of Sishiniheia n. gen., are being performed. For more information about the male genitalia of these genera see Souza-Dias et al. (2015).
description: Published as part of Souza Dias, Pedro G. B., Mello, Francisco De Assis Ganeo De & Vieira, Lelisberto Baldo, 2016, A new genus and species of cricket from the Chapada Diamantina National Park, northeastern Brazil (Grylloidea: Phalangopsidae; Luzarinae), pp. 258-266 in Zootaxa 4121 (3) on page 260, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4121.3.2, http://zenodo.org/record/257437