Gryllacris (Gryllacris) stylommatoprocera Wang & Liu 2022, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Wang, Han-Qiang
name: Liu, Xian-Wei
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2022
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Gryllacrididae
Gryllacris
Gryllacris stylommatoprocera

description: Gryllacris (Gryllacris) stylommatoprocera sp. nov. (AEṄDZễ)
Materials: Holotype ♂, Bubeng village, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China, alt. 600m, 4~ 6.VI. 2009, daytime collected, leg. Liu Xianwei, Wu Jie, Zhu Weibin & Bi Wenxuan; allotype 1♀, same as holotype except collected at night; paratype 1♀, same as holotype.
Description. General. Large size for this genus, female is larger and more robust (Fig. 5, Fig. 2a, d).
Colour dark yellow generally. Antennae brown darker apically, head reddish dorsally, with 3 canary ocellated markings, face becoming crimson from fastigium frons to clypeus, labrum reddish brown and mandibles yellowish brown, compound eyes darkish brown (Fig. 3a, e, Fig. 5a); pronotum darker with reddish brown margin also inconspicuous stripes and middle marking (Fig. 5a); folded wings yellowish brown dorsally with looming darkish patches, almost transparent laterally (Fig. 5); legs only with margins of femora and tibia getting brown, tip of spines, claws and spurs of hind tibia black, tarsi darkish yellow, movable spines and spurs of walking legs little darker (Fig. 5); tegmina almost transparent, pale brown, unfolded wings also transparent but dark brown in cell, transverse veins behind R base and Rs blackish brown with translucent black markings bordered on both sides (Fig. 2a, d); ovipositor base yellow, medium part brown, apical third with margins and top black (Fig. 5).
Auditory spiracle of thorax small with shield, a soft spine backwards behind (Fig. 2b, e). Veins of tegmen as in Fig. 1a, b. Fore coxae each with a spine, each fore tibia below with 4 pairs of movable long spine gradually shorter from base to end, and 1 pair of apical spurs; movable spines of mid tibia armed in the same way but not varied in length that much, an inner apical spur above exist; femora of walking leg unarmed; hind femur with 7–11 spines each margin below, hind tibia arms 6~7 spines each margin above, 3 pairs of spurs and 1 pair of subapical spurs below (Fig. 2).
Male. 8 th abdominal tergite broad and prolonged dorsally, leading to next tergite attaches below (Fig. 2b); nearly horizonal inclined of 9 th abdominal tergite, this tergite prolonged in high (Fig. 3d, Fig. 4c), generally rhombic in rear view (Fig. 4b), the upper prominence elongated, with a pair of protruded upper processes and a pair of lower tubercles, roughly resembling the head of stretch-eyed snail (Fig. 3b, d, Fig. 4b ~d), the lower corner bilobed at end, pyramidally thickened and raised backwards, becoming a pair of knob at tip and a pair of carinae below (Fig. 4a ~d); epiproct entirely membranous conceal beneath under the lobes, paraprocts aside the inner base of cerci, cerci very long, conical and soft (Fig. 3b, Fig. 4b); subgenital plate transverse, middle third of terminal protruded and bluntly bilobed, corners bilateral with a pair of cylindrical styli about half length of cerci (Fig. 3c, Fig. 4d).
Female. 9 th abdominal tergite stretched below with lateral corner pointed (Fig. 2e, Fig. 3g, Fig. 4f), 10 th abdominal tergite short and transverse, middle membranous collapsed continuous with soft epiproct; paraproct aside base of long conical cerci developed and triangular rounded; subgenital plate similar to equilateral triangle, basal two third with flanks semicircular elevated, inclined wrinkles above the thickened flank, shrinkage between hourglass shaped, base with numerous transverse wrinkles, behind the narrowest part posterior arising a small protruding which apex is inflated as in Fig. 3f, Fig. 4e, apical third downwards swollen (Fig. 3g, Fig. 4f), apex with a triangular incision (Fig. 3f, Fig. 4e); ovipositor basally upcurved, nearly straight afterwards, heightened subapically (Fig. 2e, Fig. 5b).
Measurements (in mm). Body ♂ 32.5, ♀ 31.0 (cowered)~40.0; pronotum ♂ 7.6, ♀ 8.8~8.9; tegmen ♂ 34.3, ♀ 36,6~36.9; wing ♂ 36.2, ♀ 37.5~38.5; hind femur ♂ 20.0, ♀ 21.0~22.2; ovipositor 26.0~26.2.
Distribution. China (Yunnan).
Etymology. The name refers to morphology of upper prominence on male 9 th abdominal tergite, very similar to the head of land snails (order Stylommatophora) which bearing stretchable stalked eyes, from Greek στύλὄμμα (stýl-ómma stalked eye) and Latin procer (protruded).
Diagnosis. Gorochov (2007) described Gryllacris thailandi based only on one female. The description is based mainly on coloration, and a drawing of the subgenital plate and photograph of the specimen. He designated this species as unique owing to its color and subgenital plate, moreover, he described another taxa also from Thailand (Fig. 6) in 2015 with both sexes, the distinction of female is slight and he suggested it was a subspecific taxon. It was Ingrisch (2018) who observed the similarity of Gorochov’s taxa with Gryllacris vittata (Fig. 6) also known from one female. They were all treated as subspecies of G. vittata. On the other hand, Bian et al. (2017) reported a new specie from Southwest China (Fig. 6) bearing such female subgenital plate as well, but the coloration and the male abdominal tip are obviously different; otherwise, G. menglaensis and our species are identical if compared only by female, but in male they seem in same structure of male 9 th abdominal tergite basically, but G. menglaensis with more primitive upper prominence and shorter (in vertical) lower protruding lobes at a large degree, other differences are minimal such as narrower and shallower terminal notch of male and female subgenital plate in our species. Moreover, the population of G. stylommatoprocera is said to be “large” at times. This is based on encounters by several local people or amateur entomologists. Judging by their short or long videos online, some of them obviously showed distinct species characters in a few shooting angles. It is possible the male specimen of G. menglaensis is an unusual identity with abdominal terminal characters not fully developed. Additional male specimens of G. menglaensis need to be collected in order to solve this problem.
This species also similar to G. (G) javanica owing to the 4 dorsal productions of male abdominal apex. However, its dorsal pair is longer contrary to G. (G) javanica. The forked dorsal productions are similar to G. (G) vietnami as well, but the other parts are totally different. It is worth mentioning that a Vietnamese species G. (Pardogryllacris) ovulicauda also bears such a female subgenital plate but has been attributed to subgenus Pardogryllacris owing to its reduced 9 th abdominal tergite and only left well developed upper prominence. This prominence with large expanded dorsal pair of productions, ventral pair of angular corners, and additional pair of tubercles mediate between two parts. In general, it is very different from previously mentioned species, but with similar components assembled in different way, this similarity needs further confirmation.
Comparing males of G. vittata related taxa, shows considerable distinction, especially between Indochinese and Chinese species, but also similarities (four parts of upper productions), so we avoid treating the Chinese species as subspecies of G. vittata at present but regard them all as a possible group. The material at hand can only be understood as fragments. Additional collecting and analysis will unravel the complex taxonomy of this group.
description: Published as part of Wang, Han-Qiang & Liu, Xian-Wei, 2022, Notes on the genus Gryllacris Audinet-Serville (Orthoptera: Gryllacrididae) with description of a new species from China, pp. 258-268 in Zootaxa 5091 (2) on pages 261-264, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5091.2.2, http://zenodo.org/record/5843609