Digentia karnyi Ramme 1929
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 karnyi

description: Digentia karnyi Ramme 1929
Figs 1, 5 A, 6 B, 7 A, 8 A, B, 13 A, 16 A – C
Type material. —
Holotype: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE CONGO • ♀; Africa, West-Central Tropical Africa, Zaire, Tolo; L. Conradt S. leg.; MRAC Tervuren KMMA; DORSA BA 000033 S 01. [examined]
Redescription. —
We give a more extended description of the type but have retained some sentences of Ramme 1929 and Hollis 1975 that are important in the comparison between D. rufogeniculata and this species.
Male. Unknown; male specimens have never been reported.
Female. Body of medium size (L = 27.72 mm), integument shiny, genae and rear of head smooth except for two rows of spots arising from the fastigial ridges. Frons coarsely wrinkled, pronotum, tergites of mesothorax and metathorax, and the first abdominal tergites rugose.
Head. Head thick (antennae missing); fastigium of vertex short, about twice as wide as long, pentagonal, slightly concave and rugose, frontal ridge well developed. Eyes oval, protuberant; interocular space slightly wider than antennae scape with a weak medial furrow.
Thorax. Pronotum cylindrical, lateral and medial carinae absent; midline of the disc crossed by three deep transverse sulci, the space between the sulci 2 and 3 narrower than metazona; metazona short, about one-half of the length of prozona; anterior and posterior margin of metazona rounded, slightly notched in the midline (Fig. 5 A); prosternal process rather long, thin, pointed; mesosternal space about 2 times longer than wide, lobe rounded; metasternal space open, wider than the half of the mesosternal space. Tegmina long, oval, strongly veined with reticulation, coarsely areolate, reaching a little beyond the first abdominal segment (Fig. 7 A) (Hollis 1975 says that the female tegmina of D. karnyi appear narrower than in D. rufogeniculata). Hind femur slender; hind tibia wide in the apical half, relatively massive (Ramme 1929 says that this species differs from D. rufogeniculata in having the hind tibia less wide apically). Hind tibia and tarsi are now missing.
Abdomen. Tympanum wide, oval; the tip of abdomen slightly curved upward; last abdominal tergite divided in the midline, lacking upwardly inflated margins or lobes either side of the midline. Supra-anal plate triangular in dorsal view, with a rounded tip, weak medial longitudinal groove proximally, bounded posteriorly by a very weak transverse ridge that extends across the width of the plate (Hollis 1975 says that the posterior margin of the subgenital plate of D. karnyi is more sharply triangular than in D. rufogeniculata and the ventral concavity is more rounded in D. karnyi). Cercus conical, slightly shorter or reaching the supra-anal plate (Fig. 8 A, B); dorsal ovipositor valves long, slightly incurved, smooth, slender, with rounded apex; ventral ovipositor valves basally with wide oval corner or lobe, slightly incurved in the middle and straight apically with rounded tip; egg guide acute pointed, one-half the length of the ventral ovipositor valves (Fig. 13 A).
Dimensions. Female. P = 5.76 mm; L = 27.72 mm; IOS = 0.86 mm; E-E = 5.19 mm.
Coloration. When we examined the type specimen, it was already in a bad state: antennae and hind femur broken, discolored, almost brown in many parts. However, it seems to have been multicolored with a pale green-yellow dominance (Fig. 16). Ramme 1929 described it as dirty olive yellow; eyes black-brown; frons paler brown, front edge of the elytra narrowly brown, hind edge pale faded brown; front and middle legs dirty brown, hind femur pure red brown, knee blood red, basal half of tibia brown, apical half darker with some olive spots, tarsi brown.
Distribution. —
Tolo (2°53'57"N, 18°33'5"E) – DR Congo, Dr J. Maes leg. (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