Gryllotalpa nymphicus Tan, new species
Creators: name: Tan, Ming Kai
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2012
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Lathiceridae
Gryllotalpa
Gryllotalpa nymphicus

description: Gryllotalpa nymphicus Tan, new species
(Figs. 1 A – 1E; 2A, 2B, 2G; 3A – 3C; 4)
Material examined. Holotype (male): Singapore, Central Catchment Nature Reserve, along Mandai Track 15, secondary forest, coll. M. K. Tan, 30 Mar.2011 (ZRC).
Paratypes: Singapore, 1 male, MacRitchie Catchment Area, primary forest, coll. X. R. Ong (from pitfall trapping), 9 Sep.2011; 1 male, Dairy Farm Nature Park, along Dairy Farm Pass, secondary forest, coll. M. K. Tan, R. W. J. Ngiam & W. L. Lim, 20 Jan.2012 (all ZRC).
Diagnosis. See key.
Description. Habitus typical of this genus (Figs. 1 A & 1B). Ocelli convex and medium (Fig. 1 C). Pronotum oval, about 1.2–1.4 times longer than wide (n=3); with longitudinal medial furrow; anterior margin concave; posterior margin roundly smooth. Anterior trochanter with process with convex ventral and substraight dorsal margins; apex acute. Dactyls of anterior tibiae moderately long, decreasing in size from dorsal to ventral dactyls; ventral dactyl substraight, others slightly curved; apices fairly acute (Figs. 1 D & 1E). Anterior tibiae with internal tympanum slit-shaped (Fig. 1 E). Hind wings reduced, completely covered by tegmina. Hind tibia armed with 2 internal subapical spines.
Male. Tegmen about 1.2 times longer than wide (n=1), reaching end of the 4th abdominal tergite. Left tegmen over right tegmen. Venation on left and right tegmina not different. Venations of right tegmen in dorsal and ventral views as shown in Figs. 2 A & 2B respectively; harp (enclosed by CuA+CuPa, CuPb, c and CuPaβ; = discoidal cell) broad at base, narrowing in the medial area (c and CuA+CuPa subparallel), with distal margin obtuse and broadly rounded, with diving vein closer to CuA+CuPa than c; cell 2 (enclosed by CuPaβ and CuPaα2) small, rectangular with concave margin along CuPaα2, less wide than harp at distal end; radius vein not diverged into RA and RP (denoted as RA+ RP). Stridulatory file gently sinuate, anterior end slightly arched basally, posterior end slightly arched distally; with about 33 teeth plus about 4 indistinct teeth anterior end (n=2); teeth densely distributed at the anterior end, very sparsely distributed at the posterior end (Fig. 2 G).
Genitalia as shown in Figs. 3 A – 3C. Transverse sclerite of epiphallus wide and substraight centrally (Fig. 3 A); with a pair of median branches pointing dorsally, with obtuse apices; with a pair of wide lateral branches, angulated curved ventrally, gently curved anteriorly at apex, apically hyalinous, dilated and round at the apices in dorsal and ventral views (Figs. 3 B & 3C). Median prolongation of epiphallus broad; sparsely and finely setose on posterior surface; flattened on dorsal surface, emarginated posteriorly (Fig. 3 B). Paramere of ectophallus broad and somewhat rounded-parallelogram-like in ventral view (Fig. 3 C); straight centrally and U-shaped laterally in anterior view; with small subacute lobe on latero-posterior margin; internal process of ectophallus paramere pointing anterio-dorsally, apex subacute (Fig. 3 A).
Female. Unknown.
Colouration. Overall brown. Ocelli pale yellow. Abdominal sternites and thorax yellow brown. Dactyls in the anterior tibiae black apically (Figs. 1 D & 1E). Femora generally lighter brown than tibiae.
Measurements. See Table 1.
Etymology. The name reflects the experience felt during the collection of this species. Although males can be heard in less disturbed forest, they are rarely sighted just as a mythical nymph; from Latin, nympha = nymph.
Calling song. Paratype collected on 20 Jan.2012 along Dairy Farm Pass was recorded in-situ at night (1945 hours). Calling song is a loud resonant hum emitting from within a shallow burrow. Pitch is low (frequency = about 2.0 kHz) and pulse rate consistent of 220 s -1 (Fig. 4).
BL PL PW RTL RTW HFL HTL SFL NST Male holotype 44.8 14.1 11.4 12.2 10.0 12.2 9.7 3.9 34+5 Paratype 39.0 13.8 10.2 Nil* 10.1 12.1 9.7 3.0 31+3 (9 Sep)
Paratype 42.0 14.1 10.2 Nil** Nil** 12.3 9.5 Nil** Nil** (20 Jan)
Mean (n = 3) 41.9 14.0 10.6 - - 12.2 9.6 - - * right tegmen of paratype from MacRitchie Catchment Area damaged at distal area. ** right tegmen of paratype from Dairy Farm Pass lost.
description: Published as part of Tan, Ming Kai, 2012, New species and redescriptions of mole crickets (Orthoptera: Gryllotalpidae: Gryllotalpinae) from Singapore, with key to Singaporean species, pp. 51-60 in Zootaxa 3389 on pages 52-57, DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.211999