Psorodonotus specularis subsp. specularis Fischer
Creators: name: Kaya, Sarp
name: Chobanov, Dragan
name: Çiplak, Battal
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2014
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Psorodonotus
Psorodonotus specularis
Psorodonotus specularis specularis fischer

description: Psorodonotus specularis specularis Fischer von Waldheim, 1839, stat. rev.
(Figs 1, 13–18, 27–32, 41–46, 48, 56–61, 70–75, 84–89, 98–103, 112–117, 126–131, 133–137, 151–155, 157; Tables 1–4)
Peltastes specularis Fischer von Waldheim 1839: 112.
Pterolepis specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Fischer von Waldheim 1846: 213, 214.
Pterolepis specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Herman 1874: 210 (note: possibly belonging to the genus Psorodonotus). Psorodonotus specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Brunner von Wattenwyl 1882: 367.
Semenovites specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Tarbinsky 1932: 194.
Psorodonotus specularis specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Ramme 1951: 260, 382.
Psorodonotus specularis (Fischer von Waldheim); Stolyarov 1983:18 (including P. s. inermis Ramme as a subspecies).
Type specimen information. Syntypes, 10 males and 1 female (cf. Fischer von Wadlheim 1846), "Tauria". Note: the type locality, in translation Crimea (or mentioned as "Krim" by other authors—see above citations), is doubtful due to the lack of any material of Psorodonotus from this region (incl. from own observations during a field trip in 2010) and the obvious absence of the genus along the whole North Black Sea coast. This data might be supported by the other type locality by Fischer de Waldheim (1939) for P. venosus —Dauria (in Siberia), a region much farther from the range of Psorodonotus. Fischer de Waldheim (1846) mentions the locality also as "Tauride", which one may subjectively relate to the Taurus mountains in Turkey (from Ancient Greek, "Όρη Ταύρου"), though this region is also remote from the range of the Specularis Group. Later on Brunner von Wattenwyl (1882), Ebner (1923) and others point to more exact localities in the Caucasus region (Tiflis, i.e. possibly the Tbilisi surroundings in Georgia; Eriwan in Armenia). The locality Derbent (Ebner 1923) is doubtful if it concerns the city in the Republic of Dagestan; the record for Syria (Giglio-Tos 1893) is certainly a mistake as this is far from the range of Psorodonotus and the region differs strongly with inappropriate climatic conditions for the populations of this species. Ramme (1951), describing P. s. inermis, defines differences between both subspecies and refers to exact localities. After comparison of literature data and new own material we may conclude that the type locality "Tauria" is wrongly referred to the Crimean Peninsula and the type specimens originate from the Lesser Caucasus (Trascaucasia)—most probably a place either in South Georgia, Armenia or the neighbouring today's territory of Turkey.
Material examined. See Table 1. Additionally: GEORGIA: 1F, East Taranscaucasica, Daeyrapal, 9.1924 (leg. M. Siazov) (NHM); 1F, Bakuriani, (leg. K. Borzom) (NHM; Brit. Mus. 1929–488); 1F Mus.Caucas. 19–12 (leg. V. Kozlavski); 1M, Bakuriani, 8.9.1912 (NHM; B.M 1935-29); 1M, 2F, Caucasus, Bakuriani, 5– 10.9.1912 (leg. Konig) (NHM); 17M, 17F, Transkaukasien, Bakuriani, 1600–2000 m, 10– 13.9.1927 (leg. Ramme) (MfN); ARMENIA: 5M, 1F, Schordsha (Goktschasee), 1900–2600 m, 2.9.1927 (leg. Ramme) (MfN).
Distribution. Widely distributed in the mountains of the Lesser Caucasus range, including NE Anatolia (the provinces of Ardahan, Artvin and Kars) (Salman 1978), Georgia and all Armenia, to the south possibly bordered by the Aras river valley and to the north by the valley of Kura and Rioni rivers. Yet, it is possible that P. specularis specularis is also partly represented in the Great Caucasus range penetrating through the mountain connection between the Greater and Lesser Caucasus (Surami pass) (see Remarks section in the next taxon).
description: Published as part of Kaya, Sarp, Chobanov, Dragan & Çiplak, Battal, 2014, Review of Psorodonotus Specularis Group (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Tettigoniinae): two new species from North-east Anatolia, pp. 367-400 in Zootaxa 3895 (3) on page 387, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3895.3.3, http://zenodo.org/record/252840