Melanabropsis formosensis Chen 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Chen, Po-Wei
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Anostostomatidae
Melanabropsis
Melanabropsis formosensis

description: Melanabropsis formosensis Chen sp. nov.
Figs 2–4
Holotype: male, Northern Cross-Island Highway, Datong Township, Yilan County, Taiwan, 14-vii-2019, coll. Zhen-Yi Chen. Paratype: female, locality same as holotype. 27-VIII-2023, Coll. Yen-Min Lin.
Type specimens will be deposited in National Museum of Natural Science, Taichung, Taiwan (NMNS).
Male: Body small for the genus. Fastigium of vertex narrow, compressed dorsal-frontally, strongly narrowed between compound eyes, apex with a longitudinal furrow from dorsal view. (Fig. 2A)
Pronotum saddle shaped, extend posteriorly. (Fig. 2B) Dorsal anterior margin straight, with a pair of arc shaped striae behind dorsal anterior margin. Dorsal median and postal transversal groove shallow, barely visible. Posterior margin broadly rounded. (Fig. 2C) Both Lateral lobes with a broad lateral concave, margin rounded. Prosternum unarmed, meso- and metasternum with a pair of processive lobe, near triangular shaped. (Fig. 2D)
Fore- and mid coxae armed with a spine; Fore femur ventrally unarmed or with a spinule; Fore tibia without tympana on both sides, dorsally unarmed except a pair of apical spurs, ventrally armed with 4 pairs of movable spines and a pair of apical spurs; Mid femur ventrally unarmed or with a few external spinules, mid tibia dorsally armed with 3 internal and 1–3 external movable spines and a pair of apical spurs, ventrally with 3 internal and 3–4 external movable spines and a pair of apical spurs; Hind femur ventrally armed with a few spinules, external surface with a series of parallel ridges, genicular lobes rounded, unarmed on both sides, hind tibia dorsally armed with 8~10 internal and 7~10 external spines and a pair of apical spurs, ventrally with 3 pairs of apical spurs, with the uppermost pair of the 3 ventral pairs of apical spurs longest in length. Numbers of spines and spurs on the appendages are shown in Table 1.
Tegmina wide and long, almost reaching apex of hind femur, nearly rectangular in cross section, caudal apex wide and round. (Fig. 2G)
9 th abdominal tergite notched shallowly in the central posterior margin; 10 th abdominal tergite armed with a pair of barbs pointed foreword, tergite lobe between the barbs compressed downward, posterior margin rounded. Epiproct wide and short, posterior margin rounded. Cerci long and slender, cylindrical, surface evenly setose. Paraproct straight, surface sparsely and evenly setose, apex truncated with a pointy and compressed tip bended upward. (Fig. 2E) Subgenital plate trapezoidal shaped, short and robust, with a medium longitudinal ventral groove in the posterior half, width of posterior end of subgenital plate is around 1/2 the width at base. Styli long and wide, overall oval shaped, dorsally compressed after dried or preserved in ethanol. (Fig. 2F).
Female: Generally similar to male, body size slightly larger than male, subgenital plate broad, triangularshaped, both sides slightly concave the base, apex sharp. (Fig. 2I) Ovipositor sickle shaped, apex acute, dorsal valves longer. (Fig. 2H)
Coloration: Body overall dark brown to black dorsally and pale yellow ventrally. Head, pronotum and tegmen shiny black. Antennal sockets, clypeus, mouthpart palps, coxae, distal part of tibiae, tarsi and cerci somewhat pale yellow. Apical half of ovipositor red brown. (Fig. 3).
Comparison: This species is overall similar to M. nightfury Yin, 2024, but differs in the following characteristics: mid tibia dorsally armed with 3 internal movable spines, the subgenital plate is trapezoidal and stout in ventral view, and the paraprocts are sparsely setose on the inner side, unlike the densely setose paraprocts in M. nightfury. This species is also similar to the preceding species M. guizhouensis, but differ in overall smaller size, and the length of male styli shorter than subgenital plate.
Measurements (in mm): Body length (with wings): ♂ 28.3~30.5, ♀ 32.8~33.4; length of pronotum: ♂ 7.5~8.6, ♀ 8.3~9.6; length of tegmina: ♂ 19.8~21.6, ♀ 22.3~23.7; length of fore femur: ♂ 9.0~10.3, ♀ 10.0~10.6; length of mid femur: ♂ 9.6~10.1, ♀ 10.1~11.30; length of hind femur: ♂ 21.6~23.9, ♀ 22.4~23.9; length of fore tibia: ♂ 10.1~11.0, ♀ 10.2~11.9; length of mid tibia: ♂ 10.8~11.7, ♀ 11.0~12.4; length of hind tibia: ♂ 20.7~23.4, ♀ 21.5~22.7; length of subgenital plate: ♂ 3.4~3.8; length of styli: ♂ 2.1~2.8; length of ovipositor: ♀ 12.1~12.3.
Habitat: This species was found in mountains areas with elevation from 600 to 1200m above sea level in the northern part of Taiwan, where mature forest is frequently shrouded by fog and rainy clouds. (Fig. 4).
Etymology: The name formosensis refers to the island of Formosa, a former name of Taiwan.
Note: It appears that the adults of M. formosensis occur in summer from July to October, mostly seen moving around on the ground or tree trunks. (Fig. 3) Some individuals were seen scavenging on dead animals, in an incident a female was lured by leftover bones of Taiwanese deep-fried chicken cutlet (Ming-Chung Chiu, personal communication), indicating that M. formosensis are carnivorous opportunists and potentially predators.
description: Published as part of Chen, Po-Wei, 2024, Macropterous species of genus Melanabropsis Wang & Liu, 2020 (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae: Anabropsini) from the localities predicted in a previous study, pp. 457-464 in Zootaxa 5538 (5) on pages 460-462, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5538.5.5, http://zenodo.org/record/14239901