Arachnitus filicrus Hebard 1932
Creators: name: Fontana, Paolo
name: Buzzetti, Filippo Maria
name: Mariño-Pérez, Ricardo
name: García-García, Patricia Lucero
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2011
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Phaneropteridae
Arachnitus
Arachnitus filicrus

description: Arachnitus filicrus Hebard, 1932
Figs. 33–34, 37, 41, 44
This species was based on material collected in Oaxaca and preserved in the Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle of Paris. Nothing has been added to the literature ragarding this species since the original description. We collected long series of A. filicrus from different localities, extending its known distribution in Oaxaca and Puebla (Fig. 44).
Examined material. Mexico, Oaxaca. Macuiltxochitl, 13.X.1979, leg. C. Marquez, 1 male (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. km 10 carr. Oaxaca-Guelatao, 19.X.1979, leg. E. Mariño, 1 male (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. km 40 carr. Oaxaca-Guelatao, 04.XII.1981, leg. C. Marquez, 1 female (CPF); same locality, 9.XII.1979, leg. E. Mariño, 1 male (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. carr. 190 Huajuapan de Leon-Oaxaca, km 44, Tierra Blanca, 2051 m, (17°40’6,9’’ N; 097°36’35’’ W), # 4, 24.X.2007, leg. P. Fontana, F.M. Buzzetti & R. Mariño-Pérez, 6 males and 11 females (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. km 40 carretera Oaxaca-Guelatao, 4.XII.1981, 1 male (CNIN); same locality, 9.XII.1979, 3 males and 1 female (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. carr. 190 Huajuapan de León-Oaxaca, km 117, Santa Rosa, 25.X.2007, 1 male and 1 female (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca, Monte Albán 19 XI 2008 carr. 175 km 87, 20.XI.2008, 1 male and 1 female (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. El Capulín, 2020 m, (17°32’5.7’’ N; 96°57’13.9’’ W) 26.IX.2009, leg. I. Castellanos-Vargas, 10 males and 10 females (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Km 172.5 carr. Tehuacán-Oaxaca, 2232 m, (17°29’22’’ N; 96°56’17.5’’ W) 19.XI.2008, leg. R. Mariño-Pérez & A. Abela-Posada, 2 males (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Carr. # 175 km 87, 1554 m, (16°23’59.5’’ N; 96°39’18.7’’ W) 2.X.2009, leg. R. Mariño-Pérez & A. Abela-Posada, 1 male and 1 female nymph (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. San Juan Nacaltepec, 1741 m, (17°34’1.3’’ N; 96°56’7.6’’ W) 26.IX.2009, leg. R. Mariño-Pérez & A. Abela-Posada, 8 males, 5 males nymph, 2 females and 2 females nymph (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Yogana, 1520 m, (16°29’1.2’’ N; 96°44’15.4’’ W) 22.X.2008, leg. I. Castellanos-Vargas, 1 male (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Carr. # 125 km 43.5, 2401 m, (17°21’54’’ N; 97°36’37’’ W) 27.IX.2009, leg. R. Mariño-Pérez & A. Abela-Posada, 2 males and 1 female nymph (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Carr. # 125 km 4.5, 2281 m, (17°32’36’’ N; 96°25’48’’ W) 27.IX.2009, leg. R. Mariño-Pérez & A. Abela-Posada, 5 males and 5 females (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. San Vicente Coatlan, 1777 m (16º24’6,4’’; 96º48’2,6’’ W), 22.X.2008, leg. I. Castellanos-Vargas, F. Castellanos-Lopez & I. Castellanos-Reynas (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Cerca de San Juan de los Cues, 737 m, (18°01’5.2’’ N; 97°03’8.4’’ W) 25.IV.2008, leg. S. Monge-Nájera, 4 males and 2 females (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Río Poblano, 2124 m, (17°47’29.7’’ N; 97°15’24.4’’ W) 29.IX.2008, leg. S. Monge-Nájera, 2 males (CNIN); Mexico, Oaxaca. Monte Alban, 1848 m, (17°03’03.7’’ N; 096°45’49,8’’ W) # 6, 20.XI.2007, Leg. P. Fontana, F.M. Buzzetti & R. Mariño-Pérez, 9 males and 5 females (CPF); same locality, 20.XI.2008, Leg. P. Fontana, F.M. Buzzetti & R. Mariño-Pérez, 3 males (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. 4 ml NW Oaxaca (main plaza) on Hwy 190, 5250 ft., 14.IX.1959, leg. I. J. Cantrall & T. J. Cohn, 1 male (CPF); Mexico, Oaxaca. 15,5 ml NW Oaxaca, 5780 ft., 9.XI.1961, leg. I. J. Cantrall & T. J. Cohn, 2 females (CPF); Puebla. Coxatlan, carr. Tehuacan-Oaxaca, 8.IX.1979, leg. E. Mariño, 1 female (CPF).
Arachnitus apterus Fontana, Buzzetti, Mariño-Pérez and García-García Figs. 35–36, 38–40, 42–44
Diagnosis. Fastigium of vertex reduced, with a medio-longitudinal sulcation in anterior portion; pronotum elongate, gently constricted in meso-cephalic portion; principal sulcus, positoned caudally; tegmina and wings absent in both sexes.
Male: Body (Fig. 42) very small, slender with extremely long legs. Eye only three-fifths as wide as long. Fastigium of vertex (Fig. 38) reduced, subhorizontal, often with a medio-longitudinal sulcation in anterior portion, in contact with facial fastigium. Pronotum (Figs. 35, 36) elongate, gently restricted in meso-cephalic portion, lateral carinae almost absent, indicated only by light stripes. Principal sulcus, positioned caudally, very weak, rounded caudad on disk, but deep dorsal on lateral lobes; average ratio prozona/metazona is 2.67; posterior margin of disk convex; lateral lobes with greatest depth caudad, ventrocephalic angle rounded, rectangulate, ventro-caudal angle sinuate; humeral sinus lacking. Tegmina and wings completely absent. Supra-anal plate (Fig. 39) transverse, rounded latero-caudad. Cercus (Fig. 39) simple, moderately stout, tapering and curving inward distad to the acute apex. Male chitinous titillator-like structure Absent. Subgenital plate with exposed lateral margins straight and weakly convergent to the feebly convex apical rectangulate emargination, so that the lateral apices are acute. Genicular lobes of femora blunt and unarmed as are the ventral femoral margins.
Female: Much more robust than male (Fig. 43); general characters as in male. Average ratio prozona/metazona 3.64. Tegmina completely absent. Supra-anal plate broader than long, rounded, with convex margin. Ovipositor (Fig. 40) minute, gradually tapering to apex, curved gently dorsad; dorsal margin to base and distal half of ventral margin very heavily toothed, lateral surfaces sharply nodose. Subgenital plate broader than long, almost semicircular, subemarginate, with a very coarse medio-longitudinal keel.
Colour. General coloration (Figs. 42, 43) light greenish on face and sides with a thin post-ocular line, reddish in upper side, white in the middle and black in lower side, running more or less to apex of abdomen. Legs and antennae often pinkish or lighter.
Male measurements. Pronotum length 3.2–3.6 (3.28*; 3.37; 0.17); ratio prozona/metazona 2.33–3.10 (2.73*; 2.67; 0.35); hind femur length 30.24–36.16 (33.92*; 33.87; 1.66); cercus length 1.52–1.84 (1.60*; 1.68; 0.11).
Female measurements. Pronotum length 4.16–4.96 (4.49; 0.28); ratio prozona/metazona 3.23–4.27 (3.64; 0.36); hind femur length 32.96–34.88 (33.97; 0.86); ovipositor length 7.6–8.32 (8.05; 0.26); ovipositor maximum high 1.52–1.84 (1.68; 0.11).
Type material. Male Holotype, female, 19 male, 11 female paratypes, Mexico, Puebla. carr. 125 Tehuacan- Huajuapan de Leon, km 51, Plan de San Miguel 2032 m (18°13’12,2’’N; 97°36’22,4’’W), 23.X.2007, leg. P. Fontana, F. M. Buzzetti and R. Mariño-Pérez; Mexico; Puebla. 3 km W of Cacaloapan at km 226, 11 km SE Tlacotepec, 6250 ft., 1.IX.1959, leg. I. J. Cantrall & T. J. Cohn, 1 male paratype.
Type depository. Male Holotype, 3 male and 2 female paratypes, CNIN; 8 male and 4 female paratypes, CPF; 9 male and 5 female paratypes, CFMB.
Derivation of name. The species is named after the absence of tegmina and wings from the Latin word apterous = wingless.
Remarks. A. apterus n. sp. can be easily distinguished from Arachnitus filicrus Hebard, 1932 being completely apterous in both sexes, having the fastigium of vertex usually with a medio-longitudinal sulcation in anterior portion. Pronotum is shorter with principal sulcus placed more posteriorly, with ratio prozona/metazona being 2.67 in males and 3.64 in females while in A. filicrus is 1.63 in males and 2.28 in females; female ovipositor is longer in A. apterus. A. filicrus Hebard, 1932 is known from many localities in Oaxaca state and one in Puebla, while A. apterus n. sp is known only from two localities in Puebla (fig. 44). Both species seem to live in the same kind of habitat: grassland with sparse, small bushes. One male and one female of this new species are erroneously reported as A. filicrus in Fontana et al. (2008) at page 75, while the true A. filicrus is reported as Arachnitus sp. by same authors at page 76.
description: Published as part of Fontana, Paolo, Buzzetti, Filippo Maria, Mariño-Pérez, Ricardo & García-García, Patricia Lucero, 2011, Three new species of Tettigoniidae from Mexico (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae; Phaneropterinae; Insarini and Odonturini), pp. 22-32 in Zootaxa 2879 on pages 27-29, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.203427