Zebragryllus mebengokre Tavares, Oya & Cadena-Castaneda 2024, sp. nov.
Creators: name: Tavares, Gustavo Costa
name: Oya, Beatriz Harumi Kondo
name: Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J.
name: Oliveira, Marcus Paulo Alves de
name: Castro-Souza, Rodrigo Antônio
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Gryllidae
Zebragryllus
Zebragryllus mebengokre

description: Zebragryllus mebengokre Tavares, Oya & Cadena-Castañeda sp. nov.
urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act: E5A449C1-D5DD-4C2A-944E-1CB4C33F60E1
Figs 6–9, 16A, D–E
Diagnosis
Species with head and pronotum dark brown, abdomen dorsally brown, and all legs ochre (Figs 6A– D, 7A–H). Males with stridulatory apparatus well developed but with a small harp subdivided into two smaller cells (Fig. 6E). Tympana well developed on the fore tibia outer surface (Figs 6A, 7A–C). Male genitalia: pseudepiphallic median lophi notably elongated and robust, conspicuously produced hindwards (greatly surpassing pseudepiphallic lateral lophi), apically acute and ventrally with round keel. Pseudepiphallic lateral lophi acute and short. Pseudepiphallic paramere not surpassing lateral lophi; in ventral view, triangular, robust, and with oblique hyaline area basally. Ectophallic fold large, greatly surpassing pseudepiphallic lateral lophi (Fig. 8A–D).
Etymology
The specific epithet is an homage to the indigenous community that lives in the type-locality area, the Mebêngôkre, which is the self-denomination of natives known in Brazil as the Kayapó people. The name is an indigenous word of the Macro-Jê linguistic trunk and is established as a noun in apposition.
Type material
Holotype BRAZIL • ♂; Pará, Conceição do Araguaia, Área 4; 7°59′52.6″ S, 49°22′27.1″ W; 20–26 Nov. 2021; F.V. Arruda and R.P.S. Almeida leg; Pitfall epigéico [epigeic pitfall]; all left legs, one palpus, and the phallic complex were removed but kept in a microvial with the specimen; MPEG. HEX 05050458.
Other material
BRAZIL • 1 ♀, immature; Pará, Conceição do Araguaia, Área 2; 7°55′31.7″ S, 49°24′11.5″ W; 24–31 Jul. 2021; pitfall epigéico [epigeic pitfall]; MPEG. HEX 05050459.
Description
Male
COLORATION. Species ochre with cephalic capsule and pronotum dark brown; abdominal tergites, eighth abdominal sternite, and subgenital plate brown; sternum and all the remaining abdominal sternites ochre (Fig. 6A–D, F, J). Eyes black, lateral ocelli whitish, median ocellus ochre; clypeus and labrum brownish, and mandibles slightly darker (Fig. 6C); maxillary palpi brown, last segment slightly darker except for whitish tip (Fig. 6G); labial palpi brown. All legs ochre, with slightly darker tibia (Fig. 7A–H).
HEAD. In frontal view, semicircular, slightly higher than wide, with eyes not laterally protruding; all three ocelli circular and almost at same level of eyes dorsal margin – median ocellus slightly lower. Antennal pits located near mid-level of eyes. Clypeus dorsal portion notably separated from ventral portion by clypeal suture. Ventral portion conspicuously constricted laterally, almost half as wide as dorsal portion, with median white stripe and transverse dark line on sides. Labrum circular, with pair of incomplete transverse mediolateral sutures. First two segments of maxillary palpi subequal in length; third and fourth each as long as first and second together; fifth longer than any other segment, with ventral margin slightly arched, dorsal margin straight, and apex rounded. Distal portion of each maxillary palpomere whitish (Fig. 6G). In lateral view, head notably convex, but frons not tumescent; eyes ovoid, and higher than wide (Fig. 6D). In dorsal view, eyes protruding, with trapezoid and apically truncated fastigium (Fig. 6B). Scapus wide, almost as wide as half of fastigium.
THORAX. Pronotum wider than long, bearing bristles on margins and posterior area of lateral lobes, with both anterior and posterior dorsal margins slightly concave. Lateral lobes almost squared, with anterior and posterior margins straight and ventral margin obliquely straight. Prosternum reduced, triangular, and continuous with conjoint cervical sclerites. Mesosternum sub-squared, with posterior margin slightly bilobed. Metasternum hexagonal, with postero-lateral margins convex and posterior margin straight (Fig. 6F).
LEGS. All femora covered by fine pubescence and some longer bristles (Fig. 7A–B, D–E, G–H). Fore and mid tibia with two apical spurs on outer side (Fig. 7A, D) and one on inner side (Fig. 7B, E). Tympana large, opened on fore tibia outer surface (Fig. 7A, C). Hind tibia with six outer and five inner dorsal spurs, and three apical spurs on each side (Fig. 7G–H); externally, dorsal and ventral apical spurs equal in size, and mid one twice longer; internally, dorsal and mid spurs equal in size, and ventral one at least three times smaller (Fig. 7G–H). Fore and mid basitarsi covered by strong setae on ventral side (Fig. 7A–B, D–F). Hind basitarsi ventrally with setae, dorsally with two rows of spines, and apically with two spurs, outer one smaller (Fig. 7G–H).
WINGS. Tegmina reaching up to fourth abdominal tergite, with stridulatory apparatus present; harp divided by two transverse veins; mirror short, divided into two longitudinal cells; apical field reticulated (Fig. 6E); angle of mirror formed almost at middle of harp posterior vein (Fig. 6E, arrow). Hind wings absent.
ABDOMEN. Cylindrical, covered with fine bristles. Male supra-anal plate subtriangular (Fig. 6H). In ventral view, subgenital plate slightly longer than wide, with widely bilobed posterior margin (Fig. 6J); in lateral view, with rounded posterior margin (Fig. 6I).
GENITALIA. Pseudepiphallic median lophi conspicuously elongated, notably produced hind- and upwards, very robust, apically acute (Fig. 8A–B, D), and ventrally with rounded keel (Fig. 8C). Pseudepiphallic lateral lophi short, with apical bristles (Fig. 8D). Pseudepiphallic parameres not surpassing lateral lophi; in ventral view, subtriangular, robust (Fig. 8B, black arrow), and with oblique hyaline area basally (Fig. 8B, white arrow). Pseudepiphallic apodeme acute and incurved (Fig. 8D). Ectophallic fold large, greatly surpassing pseudepiphallic lateral lophi (Fig. 8B). Ectophallic apodemes large and twisted, forming large dorsal plate with ectophallic arc (Fig. 8A). Rami basally bifid and notably arched along its length, contiguous (Fig. 8A–B).
MEASUREMENTS (mm). ♂, holotype: TL: 11.0; LP: 2.0; WP: 2.5; Tg: 4.5; HF: 6.0; HT: 3.5.
Female
Unknown.
Nymph female
The coloration is very similar to the adult male but lighter (Fig. 9A–B).
Remarks
This species also has quite unique male genitalia, with very long pseudepiphallic median lophi. The only known species with elongated pseudepiphallic median lophi are Z. nauta and Z. aphonus Tavares, Oya & Cadena-Castañeda sp. nov., but Z. mebengokre Tavares, Oya & Cadena-Castañeda sp. nov. has the most extended and most robust pseudepiphallic median lophi of all species of Zebragryllus.
The locality where the species was collected is in a transition zone between two large biomes, the Cerrado-Amazonia transition, considered the world’s largest ecotone (Torello-Raventos et al. 2013; Marques et al. 2020) (Fig. 16A–C). Marked seasonality and highly dynamic vegetation, comprising a mosaic of Cerrado, Amazon rainforest, and ecotonal forest vegetations, with high tree mortality and turnover levels, characterize this zone (Marimon et al. 2014; Morandi et al. 2015; Passos et al. 2018; Marques et al. 2020).
description: Published as part of Tavares, Gustavo Costa, Oya, Beatriz Harumi Kondo, Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., Oliveira, Marcus Paulo Alves de & Castro-Souza, Rodrigo Antônio, 2024, New species and records of Zebragryllus Desutter-Grandcolas & Cadena-Castañeda, 2014 (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Gryllinae) from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest, pp. 82-111 in European Journal of Taxonomy 932 on pages 94-99, DOI: 10.5852/ejt.2024.932.2511, http://zenodo.org/record/11067725