Prexaspes quadratus, (BATES, 1865)

Chiquetto-Machado, Pedro I. & Cancello, Eliana M., 2021, Cladistic analysis of Paraphasma (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae) highlights the importance of the phallic organ for phasmid systematics, Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 193 : -

PREXASPES QUADRATUS ( BATES, 1865) AND PREXASPES PAULENSIS ( REHN, 1918)

Prexaspes quadratus was originally described as Phasma Lichtenstein, 1796 ( Bates, 1865) and transferred to Paraphasma by Redtenbacher (1906), who ignored the previous assignment of this species to Prexaspes by Kirby (1904a). Prexapes paulensis was originally described as Paraphasma by Rehn (1918). Both species were recently transferred from Paraphasma to Prexaspes by Conle et al. (2020) – in the case of P. quadratus , re-establishing a combination originally proposed by Kirby (1904a).

The changes performed by Conle et al. (2020) are corroborated by our phylogenetic hypothesis, which shows a clade formed by the two species plus Prexaspes sp. ( Fig. 25: clade E), with RBS = 14 and nine synapomorphies (although only one exclusive, i.e. character 31:1), distant from the Paraphasma clade. The general morphology of P. quadratus and P. paulensis is indeed typical of many Prexaspes species , with specimens of both sexes small and slender, body with cryptic tones of green or brown, tegmina fairly elongate and bearing a sharp spine (Supporting Information, Fig. S6), and male subgenital plate not convex and with a pair of slender lateral projections covered by tergum IX ( Figs 19F, 20G). The historical assignment of these two species to Paraphasma is probably due to some superficial similarities between Prexaspes and Paraphasma , such as the absence of the ventromedian carina on the meso- and metafemur, the (frequently present) tegmina spine and the delicate aspect of most species. Nevertheless, these genera differ markedly in the terminalia of both sexes and in the phallic organ morphology.