Roeseliana brunneri Ramme 1951
Creators: name: Massa, Bruno
name: Tagliavia, Marcello
name: Buzzetti, Filippo Maria
name: Fontana, Paolo
name: Carotti, Giovanni
name: Bardiani, Marco
name: Leandri, Fausto
name: Scherini, Roberto
name: Verde, Gabriella Lo
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2023
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Roeseliana
Roeseliana brunneri

description: Roeseliana brunneri Ramme, 1951
Figs. 2b, 3a, 5a, 5b, 7a, 9a, 9b, 11, 22c, 23c
Ramme, 1951. Mitt. Zool. Mus. Berlin, 27: 260 (Roeseliana brunneri); type locality and depository: Italy, Chioggia near mouth of Po River (NMW, Vienna).
Material examined. Italy, Veneto, Chioggia (1♀ holotypus); Italy, Laguna Veneta, Isola Certosa 25.VI.1977, P. Canestrelli (1♁); Italy, Veneto, Laguna Veneta, Casse Colmata 7.VII.1979, P. Canestrelli (1♀) (NMW); same data 23.VI.1979, P. Canestrelli (3♁, 3♀) (MSNG); Italy, Veneto, Chioggia 30.VI.1997, P. Fontana (1♁, 1♀); Italy, Laguna di Chioggia (VE) 29.VII.1997, P. Fontana (6♁); Italy, Laguna media di Venezia, Barene del Lago dei Pantani 21.VIII.1984, G. Rallo (1♀) (MCR, coll. P. Fontana); Italy, Friuli, Monfalcone, biotopo F. Cavana (UD) 22.VII.2001, F. Buzzetti & A. Cogo (5♁) (MCR, coll. F. Buzzetti); Italy, Friuli, Monfalcone, biotopo F. Cavana (UD) 22.VII.2001, F. Buzzetti & A. Cogo (2♁, 1♀); Italy, Valli di Chioggia 19.VI.2001, A. Cogo (2♁) (ACPC); Italy, Laguna di Chioggia (VE) 23.VI.2016, P. Fontana & B. Massa (1♁, 1♀) (BMPC); Italy, Emilia-Romagna, Valle dell’Ortazzo (Ravenna) 7.VII.2021, E. Rivalta (1♁) (Coll. Rivalta, Bologna).
Remarks. R. brunneri was described by Ramme (1951) based on a single holotype female, collected by Brunner von Wattenwyl and mentioned in his Prodomus. Nadig (1961) supposed that it could be a long-winged female of R. azami. Ĝtz (1969) considered R. brunneri much related to R. azami, but hypothesized also that it could be synonym of R. ambitiosa or an endemic Italian species. Nevertheless, he considered it a subspecies of R. fedtschenkoi. Based on comparative, partly morphometric research, also Canestrelli (1981) was not able to find taxonomic characters to separate R. azami from R. brunneri. Nadig (1987), after additional comparison did not hesitate to synonymize R. brunneri with R. azami, highlighting that the range separation of the populations in southern France and Venice could not be a reason to treat them as separate species. Later Fontana (2001) and Fontana & Kleukers (2002) reinstated it as a valid species, followed by Fontana et al. (2002), Massa & Fontana (2011) and Massa et al. (2012).
Massa & Fontana (2011) invoked some reasons for which R. brunneri must be considered as a valid species, not related to R. fedtschenkoi, but eventually to ‘ azami-minor group’; now we reiterate this opinion, adding new morphological and biometrical characters (Tables 2 and 3, Figs. 7a, 9a, 9b). R. brunneri has male titillators with spines from the base to apex (Figs. 5a, 5b) and the female subgenital plate is laterally more rounded than that of related taxa, R. azami and R. azami minor (Figs. 9a, 9b). However, the proposed synonymy with R. fedtschenkoi, whose description has been unknown to most authors, is inexplicable.
The female holotype of R. brunneri is fully-winged, but it remained the sole fully-winged specimen till now collected. See also Tables 2 and 4.
Distribution. R. brunneri occurs only in humid zones of Venice and Chioggia lagoons (Italy, Veneto and Friuli) and Po Valley (Emilia-Romagna) (Canestrelli 1981, Fontana 2001, Buzzetti et al. 2011, Tami 2007, Tami et al. 2011, Tami & Fontana 2018).
description: Published as part of Massa, Bruno, Tagliavia, Marcello, Buzzetti, Filippo Maria, Fontana, Paolo, Carotti, Giovanni, Bardiani, Marco, Leandri, Fausto, Scherini, Roberto & Verde, Gabriella Lo, 2023, A taxonomic revision of the Palaearctic genus Roeseliana (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigoniinae: Platycleidini): a case of ongoing Mediterranean speciation, pp. 351-400 in Zootaxa 5270 (3) on page 367, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5270.3.1, http://zenodo.org/record/7859886