Peropyrrhicia antinorii ( De Bormans, 1881 )

Felix, Rob P. W. H. & Massa, Bruno, 2016, Orthoptera (Insecta: Tettigonioidea, Pyrgomorphoidea, Acridoidea) of Kafa Biosphere Reserve, Bale Mountains National Park and other areas of conservation interest in Ethiopia, Zootaxa 4189 (1), pp. 1-59 : 14-17

Peropyrrhicia antinorii ( De Bormans, 1881)

http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera .speciesfile.org:TaxonName:8526 Figures 12, 18–22

Material examined. ETHIOPIA: Shewa, Holeta (2400 m), 21.X.1973, (1Ƌ, 1♀) ( BMPC).

Distribution. Endemic to Ethiopia.

Taxonomy. De Bormans (1881) described the species based on a female, collected in the Shewa province , with the following characters: Subgenital plate short, wide, rectangular, hind margin widely and deeply triangularly excised, in the middle just raised (translated from Latin). The type specimen, originally preserved in alcohol at the MSNG, has been lost during World War II.

We assume Ragge (1980) misinterpreted the species description of P. antinorii . He examined a series of females of which the subgenital plate had broadly divergent lobes, as depicted in Figure 67 in Ragge (1980). He considered the species description of P. antinorii by De Bormans (1881) (see above) to fit to the shape of the subgenital plate of these females. Ragge’s females were collected at the same location as the holotype of P. cooperi , described by Uvarov (1934) based on three males from Jem-Jem Forest, ca. 65 km W of Addis Ababa. This is probably the reason he considered P. cooperi as a synonym of P. antinorii .

We examined a male and a female specimen of a Peropyrrhicia collected at Holeta, ca. 30 km W of Addis Ababa. The male fits to the type description of P. cooperi , with some differences. However, the subgenital plate of the female is very different than that of the females studied by Ragge to be P. antinorii , collected at Mt. Damota and depicted in Figure 67 in Ragge (1980). The lateral margins of our female specimen from Holeta are divergent instead of convergent.

We interpret De Bormans’ (1881) species description differently than Ragge did, and assume that it perfectly fits to the shape of the subgenital plate of our female specimen from Holeta, in difference to that of the Mt. Damota specimen. This means the male from Holeta is the first known male specimen of P. antinorii . It would mean furthermore, that the female specimen collected at Mt. Damota, and the one used for the drawing of Ragge, do not belong to P. antinorii , but probably to P. cooperi , since those females were collected at the same site as the male holotype of P. cooperi . This also means that P. cooperi indeed is a valid species.

Characters of the species. Description of the male: Pronotum saddle-shaped, tegmina longer than pronotum, not exceeding the 3rd abdominal tergite, their apical external angle very slightly less than 90°, rounded ( Figure 12). Fore femora may have a single small black spine on each sub-apical ventral margin, mid femora unarmed, hind femora with 4–5 outer and 3–4 inner black spines on ventral margins. First and 2nd antennal segment black below, others blackish with yellow rings at the base. Appendage of 10th tergite widened towards the apex, which is more or less straight with acute lateral angles; one stout spine is present underneath each margin of the appendage base. At the base of the appendage, before the spine there is the 9th tergite, as one stout inflated extrusion (considered by Uvarov 1934 as supra-anal plate), that ends with two ovoid apices below the above-mentioned spine. The base of the subgenital plate is concave ( Figures 18–21 ).

Female. Same characters as the male, with the following differences. Pronotum not saddle-shaped, tegmina very reduced, lateral and not overlapped, just reaching the 2nd tergite, their apical external angle about 45°, rounded ( Figure 12). The ovipositor of this species, together with that of P. cooperi , P. s c ot t i and P. m a cu l a t a, is more gently upcurved ( Figure 22 ), compared to other Ethiopian species treated here. It has small fine denticles at both upper and lower apices. Subgenital plate with a wide base, converging apically and ending with a wide concavity. At the center of the plate a longitudinal keel is evident ( Figure 22 ).

Measurements. See Table 3 .

Distribution. According to Ragge (1980) the distribution of this species extends from Shewa province down to the region of Lake Abaya in the extreme north of Sidamo province, but he included also P. cooperi . Thus, actually P. antinorii is known only from the Shewa province.

Figures

FIGURE 18. Dorsal view of the 10 th tergite of males Peropyrrhicia

FIGURE 19. Lateral view of the 10 th tergite of males Peropyrrhicia.

FIGURE 20. Posterior view of the 10 th tergite of males Peropyrrhicia

FIGURE 22. Ovipositor and subgenital plate of females Peropyrrhicia.

Tables

TABLE 3. Measurements of Ethiopian species of the genus Peropyrrhicia. P. cooperi, P. s c ot t i and P. m a c u l at a after Ragge (1980), P. massaiae after De Bormans (1881). Ragge (1980) considered P. cooperi synonymous with P. antinorii.

Species	Body length	Pronotum length	Hind femora length	Tegmina length	Ovipositor length
P. antinorii	16.6 (Ƌ) 16.3 (♀)	2.9 (Ƌ) 3.2 (♀)	14.8 (Ƌ) 13.2 (♀)	5.2 (Ƌ) 4.8 (♀)	10.8
P. cooperi	16.0–18.4 (Ƌ) 21.6–21.9 (♀)	2.8–3.5 (Ƌ) 3.7–4.3 (♀)	12.9–15.9 (Ƌ) 14.4–17.0 (♀)	4.4–5.5 (Ƌ) 3.9–4.8 (♀)	10.8–11.0
P. attilioi n. sp.	16.5 (Ƌ) 17.8–21.7 (♀)	3.6 (Ƌ) 4.0–4.6 (♀)	16.5 (Ƌ) 17.4–18.4 (♀)	5.2 (Ƌ) 4.1–4.9 (♀)	7.9–8.3
P. keffensis n. sp.	12.1–16.7 (Ƌ) 18.5–21.0 (♀)	2.7–3.5 (Ƌ) 3.4–3.8 (♀)	13.5–16.3 (Ƌ) 14.7–15.3 (♀)	4.2–5.2 (Ƌ) 3.6–4.0 (♀)	6.0–6.9
P. maculata	14.6–16.5 (Ƌ) 17.0 (♀)	3.2–4.0 (Ƌ) 3.9 (♀)	14.7–17.5 (Ƌ) 15.4 (♀)	4.0–5.0 (Ƌ) 3.4 (♀)	10.7
P. massaiae	16.5 (Ƌ)	3.7 (Ƌ)	15.5 (Ƌ)	4.5 (Ƌ)
P. scotti	14.4–18.6 (Ƌ) 15.7–20.7 (♀)	2.9–3.5 (Ƌ) 3.5–4.1 (♀)	12.5–16.9 (Ƌ) 13.8–15.8 (♀)	4.4–5.3 (Ƌ) 4.4–4.8 (♀)	10.5–11.7
P. semiensis n. sp.	17.2 (Ƌ)	3.2 (Ƌ)	14.2 (Ƌ)	4.0 (Ƌ)
continued.