Mecopoda confracta, Liu, 2020

Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, Baker, Ed, Ingrisch, Sigfrid, Korsunovskaya, Olga, Liu, Chun-Xiang, Riede, Klaus & Warchałowska-Šliwa, Elżbieta, 2021, Bioacoustics and systematics of Mecopoda (and related forms) from South East Asia and adjacent areas (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Mecopodinae) including some chromosome data, Zootaxa 5005 (2), pp. 101-144 : 125

Subgroup confracta Liu, 2020

According to Liu Cx et al. (2020), the species of this group „have mediate-width long tegmina, comparatively short files and the narrowest mirror. The file is widest in basal quarter, from which teeth are gradually narrower toward both ends. The songs are discontinuous and each song unit consists of numerous simple syllables“. The authors included the two newly described species Mecopoda confracta and M. synconfracta sp. n. ( China), but listed also Mecopoda _“S” ( Malaysia) with song and file data and Mecopoda _ “N” (Bali) ( Sismondo 1990) as group members. In addition and based on file structure, they added an unidentified Mecopoda species from Vietnam and an otherwise undescribed ‚ Mecopoda elongata‘ from India. From song structure also the „chirper“ in Nityananda & Balakrishnan (2006) belongs to the group. In our material specimens with a ratio larger than 1.5 (length/width of mirror area) always belonged to the confracta subgroup.

Among this material there are at least three forms which differ clearly in song pattern from the previously described ones and from each other. Their songs differ mainly in three parameters, in echeme repetition rate (echeme period), in syllable repetition rate (syllable period) and in the number of syllables per echeme. For comparison, we present also data on the song of the Chinese species M. confracta ( Tab. 4 ).

Concerning the structure of the stridulatory file,all species of the subgroup are relatively similar( Figs.11H–K , 12 ).

Figures

FIGURE 11. Stridulatory files in Mecopoda and Eumecopoda. A M. niponensis niponensis, lectotype, B M. niponensis vietnamica subsp. nov., holotype, C M. himalaya, CH3737 (Malaysia), D M. himalaya (=M. ampla malayensis, holotype), E M. himalaya (=M. ampla javaensis, holotype), F M. himalaya (=M. fallax aequatorialis, holotype), G M. macassariensis, holotype, H M. fallax, Thailand, I M. stridulata stridulata, CRTmeceloM02 (Borneo), J M. stridulata stridulata, holotype, K M. paucidens sp. nov., (Java), L M. sismondoi sp. nov., holotype, M M. javana, neotype, N M. javana, Sri Lanka, O M. mahindai sp. nov., holotype, P M. angusta, CH3697, Q M. dilatata, ORT 2005/413 (Borneo), R E. cyrtoscelis zhantievi subsp. nov., holotype, S M. prominens, holotype, T M. ampla ampla, holotype. Scale 1 mm.

FIGURE 12. Inter-tooth spacing in stridulatory files of Mecopoda species. Thick lines and filled symbols indicate specimens with known song. A–D: M. elongata group: A M. niponensis subgroup and M. marmorata, B M. himalaya and macassariensis, C M. fallax and species with similar files, D M. confracta subgroup, E other Mecopoda and Eumecopoda species.