Afroanthracites discolor Hemp, Ingrisch & Unal, n. sp.
Creators: name: Hemp, Claudia
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Afroanthracites
Afroanthracites discolor

description: Afroanthracites discolor Hemp, Ingrisch & Ünal n. sp. (Fig. 4, Fig. 7 I–L, Fig. 8 A, B, Fig. 9, Fig. 10 A)
http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: orthoptera.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:180002
Holotype male, Tanzania, West Usambara Mountains, Mt. Kwagoroto, 1800 m, Mazumbai forest reserve, March 2003. Depository: ZMHB.
Paratypes.— 1 female, same data as holotype, depository: ZMHB. 1 male, 1 female, same data as holotype, depository: BMNH; 1 male, 1 female, same data as holotype: depository: NMKE.
Futher paratype material: 7 males, 2 females, same data as holotype; 2 males, 1 female, Mazumbai forest reserve, 1500 m, near Old Swiss Chalet, January 2007. All collection C. Hemp.
Description.—Male. General colour a mix of green, black, hazelnut and dark brown colours with white to cream fasciae. This pattern is very conspicuous in the living insect (Fig. 4) but fades to more brown and tawny colour in the preserved insect. Head and antennae.—Fastigium verticis conical, shorter than scapus; dorsal side brown as vertex, ventral side cream to white, contrasting with black triangle-shaped fascia on face; labrum and genae creamy (Fig. 7 I). Antennae long, more than twice as long as body, red-brown to dark brown (Fig. 4). Thorax.— Pronotum shiny with many shallow dots; first sulcus well developed, although short and strongly curved, vanishing on lateral lobes; second sulcus hardly discernible on disk, shallow on lateral lobes; disc hazelnut brown to dark brown bordered by broad white fasciae at anterior margin and around metazona, replaced by vivid green parallel lines on meso- and prozona (Fig. 4 A, C, E); lateral lobes (Fig. 4 B) hazelnut brown with broad vivid green margin and a yellowish spot at ventral hind angle. Tegmina for most of their length hidden under pronotum, posterior margin visible; reduced to stridulatory area and a short apical flap; stridulatory area strongly elevated and ventral margins curved to fit the shape of the body; stridulatory vein on left tegmen dark brown and strongly bulging on dorsal side, on right tegmen weak with stridulatory teeth shining through the surface; both tegmina with a large central and an elongate lateral mirror; all transparent; stridulatory vein on underside of left tegmen strongly curved, about 3.6 mm long (direct line between both ends), with 159 narrow, densely arranged teeth plus 7 separate teeth at lateral end (n=1). Legs.— Fore and mid femora with 2 outer ventral spines, unarmed on inner sides. Fore and mid tibiae with ventral 5 spines on each margin. Hind tibiae faintly swollen in basal half and on ventral side only in apical area angled, dorsal margins and angled area of ventral margins provided with numerous small spinules. Abdomen.— Abdomen with conspicuous green and brown pattern (Fig. 4 D). Tenth abdominal tergite black in anterior half, whitish to light brown in down-curved apical half, medially divided by a deep sulcus in pale coloured area, posterior margin straight, lateral margins rounded and bulging (Fig. 7 J, K). Cerci in situ hidden under 10th abdominal tergite, forming a short cone with acute tips (Fig. 8 A, Fig. 9); with large dorso-ventrally compressed internal process divided about mid-length into a blunt proximal and a little longer curved acute distal branch. Subgenital plate elongated, divided into two lobes with well developed styli, posterior area slightly upcurved (Fig. 7 L). Titillators curved, in apical area with roughly hand-shaped projection with four acute teeth, of which the in situ ventral tooth is more spaced from the other three teeth; with large, roughly triangular sphaerical, baso-lateral sclerites and a pair of simple triangular dorso-apical sclerites (Fig. 8 B).
Female.—General habitus and colour pattern as male with long and stout ovipositor, moderately up-curved. Last abdominal tergite medially v-shaped incised, margins of incision forming two short processes with acute tips (Fig. 11). Cerci of normal shape, conical (Fig. 11). Subgenital plate broad, medially incised at posterior margin (Fig. 11).
Measurements, males (mm) (N = 4). Body length 22–22.5. Length of pronotum 9.4–9.6. Length of hind femur 11.0–11.7.
Measurements, females (mm) (N = 2). Body length 22.5–23. Length of pronotum 6–6.7. Length of hind femur 12. Length of ovipositor 10.5–11.5.
Diagnosis.—Easily distinguished from all other known Afroanthracites species by its colour pattern and the structure of the male tenth abdominal tergite, cerci, subgenital plate and titillators. A. viridis n. sp. is vivid green with a pronotal pattern of a brown large patch and white fascia and a yellow tenth abdominal tergite, all other Afroanthracites species show a more mottled colour pattern of brown and green colours and a dark large patch on the metazona of the pronotal disk. The tenth abdominal tergite of male A. discolor n. sp. is divided into two parts medially, the rear part being downcurved. All other Afroanthracites species have undivided 10th abdominal tergites.
The females are similar to the males in their colour pattern. The ovipositor of all Afroanthracites as far as they are known is stout and slightly up-curved (Fig. 6). The subgenital plates of A. viridis n. sp., A. usambaricus n. sp., A. montium and A. discolor n. sp. are similar, being broad and posteriorly more or less deeply incurved where they are attached to the ovipositor (Fig. 11, A. montium not depicted but very similar to A. usambaricus). In the female of A. jagoi n. sp. the subgenital plate is also broadly incurved medially but the lateral edges are elongated and pointed (Fig. 11), clearly differentiating the females of this species from other Afroanthracites species. The posterior margin of the 10th abdominal tergite is straight in A. viridis n. sp. (Fig. 11) while in other species the posterior margin is weakly to strongly medially v-shaped incised with the lateral edges being widely ajar or closely together. Thus A. discolor n. sp. has a deep median incision with the lateral edges of the incision elongated with pointed tips (Fig. 11), while the incision in A. usambaricus females is broadly v-shaped and not very deep with rounded lateral edges and in A. jagoi n. sp. females the posterior margin appears somewhat elongated medially with a tiny incision at its tip (all Fig. 11). The posterior margins of female A. usambaricus and A. montium are similar. In A. usambaricus the posterior margin is v-shaped incised with rounded edges (Fig. 11) while in A. montium the incision is shallow and broad with tips wider ajar. Also the cerci of females differ in its shape, being of “normal” shape in A. discolor n. sp., A. usambaricus and A. montium, roundly inflated at the base in A. viridis n. sp. and stout and thick over almost the whole length in A. jagoi n. sp. (Fig. 11). The female of A. uluguruensis n. sp. is not known.
Except for A. discolor n. sp., A. usambaricus and A. jagoi n. sp. in the West Usambara Mountains there is no area with syntopic occurring Afroanthracites species. A. usambaricus resembles in its color pattern and the male and female genitalia and last abdominal tergites A. montium from the Mts Kilimanjaro/Meru area suggesting a close relationship between these two species.
Distribution: Tanzania; West Usambara Mountains.
Song: (Long) series of syllables, mostly in the ultrasonic range.
Ecology & Biology: Night active species. Males cling to branches inside of bushes performing their song at night.
Habitat: Submontane plantations, montane forest and forest edge.
description: Published as part of Hemp, Claudia, 2013, Annotated list of Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) from the East Usambara Mountains Tanzania and new Tettigoniidae species from East Africa, pp. 301-350 in Zootaxa 3737 (4) on pages 309-312, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.3737.4.1, http://zenodo.org/record/248321