Phyllomimus midoriyae Tiwari and Diwakar 2024, sp. n.
Creators: name: Tiwari, Chandranshu
name: Diwakar, Swati
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2024
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Phyllomimus
Phyllomimus midoriyae

description: Phyllomimus midoriyae Tiwari and Diwakar sp. n.
(Figs. 2–3)
Material examined: Holotype: Male. INDIA: Assam, Hollangapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Jorhat ~ 120 m a.s.l. 2017, Coll. Chandranshu Tiwari, Department of Environmental Studies, University of Delhi, 110007 (Delhi), India. Paratype: Assam, Hollangapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Jorhat ~ 120 m a.s.l., 2021 Coll. Chandranshu Tiwari (2 ♂), Arunachal Pradesh, Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Changlang ~ 200–4,571 m a.s.l. 2017 Coll. Chandranshu Tiwari (1 ♂)
Type locality. Hollangapar Gibbon Wildlife Sanctuary, Jorhat, Assam, India.
Measurements (length in mm): Body 25.43 (1.24); Tegment 32.14 (1.39); Pronotum 5.22 (0.61); Fore-femora 8.54 (0.54); mid-femora 7.24 (0.99); hind-femora 12.79 (0.45); Fore tibia 7.95 (0.55); Mid tibia 6.40 (0.17); hind-tibia 11.65 (1.06); file 4.4 (0.54).
Distribution: Nocturnal. Found only inside the dense understorey. In addition to the type locality, The collector also heard the same call type in Namdapha Tiger Reserve, Arunachal Pradesh. The species is likely to be distributed in North-East Himalayas.
Seasonal occurrence: The species was observed perennially at the type locality.
Etymology: The species is named after Izuku Midoriya, the eighth inheritor of One for All and the protagonist in the manga series My Hero Academia (Boku no Hīrō Akademia) by Kōhei Horikoshi. Like its namesake the species is green and difficult to locate in the dense understorey while simultaneously being the most distinct part of the acoustic community (Midori=green).
Differential diagnosis: The species is similar to Phyllomimus detersus (Walker 1869) but differs in the following characters: Fore femora and mid femora unarmed, hind tibia with 2 rows of ventral spines, post tibial joint with distinct blue-green ring. Tegmen with silver-gray spots in radial field. The call pattern of P. midoriyae matches to P. inversus in temporal but differs in having a narrower bandwidth in case of P. midoriyae (Heller 1995; Tiwari and Diwakar 2023a).
Description:
Male: Body stout. Head narrower than the fore border of the prothorax; keel of the vertex lanceolate, furrowed, a little narrower than the first joint of the antennae; front forming a little cone between the sockets of the antennae. Eyes prominent, short-elliptical.Antennae more than twice the length of the body, with short dark bands. Pronotum finely tuberculated, with an indistinct longitudinal impressed line and two strongly marked transverse impressed lines, which slightly converge towards one other on each side, and of which the hind one is more abbreviated than the fore one; fore border and hind border much rounded; sides slightly rounded. Legs stout. Fore- and mid-femora unarmed, hind-femora less than half the length of tegmen with a row of eight small spines. Fore tibia dorsally unarmed, ventrally armed with 5 spines on inner and outer margin. Mid tibia unarmed. Hind-tibia armed with 9 spines on inner and outer margin dorsally, 6 spines on inner and outer margin on ventral side. Wings equal length to tegmen. Tegmen minutely reticulated; costa and interior border nearly straight; three irregular rows of areolets between the scapular vein and the costa; scapular and externomedial vein contiguous for about two-thirds of the length, where they part and are lost in branching; three irregular rows of areolets between the externomedial and the anal vein, and one row of regular quadrate areolets between the latter and the interior border. Tegmen at the base of the radial field, decorated with silver-gray spots. Hind wings pellucid. Stridulatory file with 230±5 teeth (n=3), teeth densely arranged and uniform throughout the length.
Male genitalia. Subgenital lamina elongate, with two clavate styles, Cerci poorly cast, short, tipped with a small black tip. Supra-anal plates small and triangular.
Female: unknown. Supposed to be similar to that of P. detersus.
Coloration: Green. Antennae light green with short dark bands apically. Tegmen appears green/yellow when live with silver-gray spots in the radial field, but is hyaline with veins and brownish spots. All femora and tibia light green when alive. Post tibial joint with distinct blue-green ring.
Depositories: The specimens are deposited in the Department of Environmental Studies, Faculty of Science, University of Delhi.
description: Published as part of Tiwari, Chandranshu & Diwakar, Swati, 2024, The Orchestra Nocturne: Description For Six New Katydid Species From India (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae), pp. 227-245 in Zootaxa 5405 (2) on pages 231-234, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5405.2.4, http://zenodo.org/record/10603343