Anostostomatidae, Saussure, 1859

Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., García, Alexander García, Nos, Maria Del Pilar Castella-, Sarmiento, Juan Pablo Prias & Tavares, Gustavo Costa, 2022, Studies on chevron crickets: Contribution to the knowledge of Lutosinae / ini taxa (Orthoptera: Anostostomatidae), Zootaxa 5178 (4), pp. 347-379 : 376

Anostostomatidae classification

The classification of the chevron crickets has been changing in the taxonomic ranges, and already belonged to Mimnermidae (Lezininae, Lutosinae , Mimnerminae and Deinacridinae) and Cratomelidae (Cratomelinae and Anabropsinae) according to Gorochov (1988). These two “families” were synonymized to Anostostomatidae . Mimnermidae became a junior synonym (a name not currently valid), and Cratomelidae was considered a monogeneric tribe in the same way as the other subfamilies that got status of tribe ( Johns, 1997). Again Gorochov (2001a) elevated to the status of subfamilies to the previously mentioned taxa, also including as a subfamily Cooloolidae = Cooloolinae, a successful change of taxonomic rank. This classification scheme in subfamilies was mostly accepted and incorporated in the Orthoptera Species File ( Cigliano et al. 2022) and in which we have been following in the last twenty years.

Recently, Gorochov (2020), decided to keep two subfamilies, Anostostomatinae and Lezininae, opining that the latter should also be a tribe, since it does not have special morphological characters. The other subfamilies were treated as tribes of Anostostomatinae . Gorochov’s taxonomic rank changes were not restricted only to the Stenopelmatoidea , but also occurred in the Grylloidea and Tettigonioidea. Perhaps, Gorochov will apply the same procedure to the family Rhaphidophoridae . So, we may ask: will he rearrange camel cricket subfamilies into tribes or return to his old scheme of Ensifera subfamilies mentioned here?

Undoubtedly, Gorochov has contributed enormously to the study of Ensifera and other Polyneoptera, but a fair hierarchy must be maintained for all taxa. Gorochov (pers. comm.) introduced his changes in taxonomic ranges so that they are more similar to the classifications of other groups of insects, and thus establish coherence in the taxa indistinctly. If Gorochov taxonomically reassigned subfamilies to tribes, the same should happen in groups that he considers subfamilies and that are closely related, as an example the group of subfamilies Gryllinae (more details in Cadena-Castañeda & García García 2020) among others.