Habetia imitatrix Karny 1912
Creators: name: Ingrisch, Sigfrid
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Orthoptera
Tettigoniidae
Habetia
Habetia imitatrix

description: <i>Habetia imitatrix</i> Karny, 1912 Figs 8A, 11E, 12F–I, 14F, 18D, Map 1(2). <b>Holotype (male):</b> Papua New Guinea: Madang, labeled “ K. Wilhelm-Land, Bongu”, (5°29’S, 145°49’E), about 1910, collector and date not stated—depository: Senckenberg Museum für Tierkunde Dresden (SMTD). <b>Discussion.</b> The only known specimen of <i>H. imitatrix</i>, the male holotype, is in general characters very similar to the type of <i>H. spada</i>, a female. Both taxa are known from a single specimen each. The type localities of both taxa are located very close to each other or are maybe identic: Konstantinhafen has been one of the old German settlements in New Guinea, while Bongu is not a locality but the name of a tribe living in the area about 30 km South of Madang (Hempenstall 2016), that is close to Enke Port. Karny (1912) might have been not aware of these facts when he described <i>H. imitatrix</i>. This raises the question if the female type of <i>H. spada</i> and the male type of <i>H. imitatrix</i> might belong to the same species. However, there are localities that house two different species of the genus <i>Habetia</i>. Moreover, both taxa are known from a single specimen, and these specimens are of the opposite sex. It is thus better to wait with any nomenclatural changes until more specimens of both taxa become available to solve this question, preferably male and female found together. <b>Diagnosis.</b> The male of <i>H. imitatrix</i> is unique for the shape of the subgenital plate that has the central area prolonged behind and that area shaped like a hood that carries on apico-dorsal margin a row of teeth of decreasing size toward end, and the styli project laterally from the subgenital plate not from apical margin as in all other species (Figs 12F, 14F). <b>Description.</b> General habitus of the genus. Coloration of face of general color; mandibles fully black; antennal scrobae with indistinctly darkened spot at ventro-internal angle. Femora with the following number of spines on ventral margins: (1) a 6 p 6; (2) a 7 p 3; (3) a 9–12 p ca 11 (n = 1). Male. Stridulatory file on underside of left tegmen with a distinct step in distal area; file length 2.50 mm with 78 teeth, of which narrow curved basal area 0.25 mm with 8 teeth, central area 1.58 mm with 37 teeth, step 0.15 mm with 5 teeth, narrow apical area 0.54 mm with 28 teeth (Fig. 18D). Tenth abdominal tergite with convex surface; from hind margin with a long and narrow oval incision closed from behind by projecting acute angles from tip of resulting gap. Cerci moderately curved and little narrowing towards end; from little before mid-length with a dorso-ventrally compressed inner ridge that widens to a wide and compressed internal process, which divides towards end into two compressed, wide, and little curved lobes, the proximal branch little larger than the distal branch, both with a minute denticle at tip, the proximal branch also with a dorsal carina from base of process; inner surface of cercus between these projections and upper margin little concave and terminated dorsally by a narrow rim (Fig. 8A). Subgenital plate roughly semi-circular with a long and narrow medial projection; in ventral view deeply incised from base and membranous between resulting oblique anterior margins; sclerotized area with convex and later concave lateral margins forming a long and narrow apical projection with a fine medial carina and acute and laterally compressed tip; this rather high and towards ventral margin laterally compressed projection obviously results from a widened fusion of the dorsal lateral margins with the ventral, medial carina, it is in lateral view obliquely truncate at end and carries 3 larger transverse teeth in upper and a few minute denticles in lower area (Figs 11E, 12F, 14F). Titillators mostly black; at base little recurved and with narrowing margins, then straight and approaching each other; before performing a curvature slightly widened and diverging, then performing a more than 180° curve, in apical area straight with parallel margins and truncate but with shortly recurved tip (Figs 12G–I); lateral sclerites elongate, of same color as titillators, with rounded ends and a small notch in about mid-length. Female unknown. Measurements (1 male).—Body w/o wings: 35; pronotum: 9.3; tegmen: 33.5; hind femur: 24.5 mm.
description: Published as part of <i>Ingrisch, Sigfrid, 2021, Revision of the genera Habetia Kirby, 1906 and Parahabetia gen. nov. from New Guinea (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Conocephalinae, Agraeciini), pp. 201-256 in Zootaxa 5020 (2)</i> on pages 209-210, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5020.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5223173
description: {"references": ["Hempenstall, P. J. (2016) Chapter 7. The Mainland: New Guineans under Company and Empire. In: Pacific Islanders Under German Rule: A Study in the Meaning of Colonial Resistance. ANU Press, Canberra, pp. 163 - 198. Online Version. Available from: http: // www. jstor. org / stable / j. ctt 1 dgn 5 vg. 17 (accessed 20 July 20210"]}