Zvenella acutangulata, Xia, Liu & Yin, 1991

Zheng, Yanna, Xin, Zhixia, Xie, Lingde & Ma, Libin, 2021, - Revision-of-the-cricket-subfamily-Podoscirtinae-Saussure, - 1878 - (Orthoptera: - Gryllidae) - from-China, Zootaxa 4995 (3), pp. 401-424 : 404-407

Zvenella acutangulata ­Xia,­Liu­&­Yin­1991

(Figs. 2A; 3A, D; 4A–G)

Zvenella acutangulata Xia, Liu & Yin, 1991: 121–123 ; Yin & Liu, 1995: 109; Gorochov, 2002: 336; Ma & Zhang, 2012: 60 Zvenella scalpratus Ma & Zhang, 2012: 60 , syn.­nov.

Examined­materials.­ 3 males. China: Yunnan, Ruili, Mengxiu , Jun. 12, 2013, Ma, Libin coll. ( SNNU) ; 3 males. China: Yunnan, Jinghong , Jul. 11, 2018, Peng, Zhong coll. ( SNNU) ; 2 males. China: Yunnan, Mengla, Yaoqu , May 24, 2013, Ma, Libin coll. ( SNNU) ; 3 males. China: Yunnan, Mengla, Menglun , May 12, 2009, Ma, Libin coll. ( SNNU) ; 2 males. China: Yunnan, Cangyuan, Banlao , Jun. 4, 2013, Ma, Libin coll. ( SNNU) ; 3 males. China: Hainan, Baisha, Yinggeling , Aug. 21, 2019, He, Zhixin and Zhang, Tao coll. ( SNNU) ; 1 male: Guangxi, Longzhou, Zhubu, Nonggang , Sep. 9, 2020, He, Zhixin coll. ( SNNU) ; 1 male: Guangxi, Longzhou, Zhubu, Nonggang , May 6, 2019, Ma, Libin and Zhang, Tao coll. ( SNNU) .

Measurements­ (mm).­ Male­ (n=18): ­ BL 17.30±2.12; HL 5.48±0.53; HW 3.10±0.57; PL 2.52±0.24; PW 4.00±0.33; FWL ­ 13.50±0.45; HFL 6.12±0.02; HTL 10.66±0.08

Description.­Male:­ Vertex broad and flattened, slightly inclined. Occiput slightly convex, almost as wide as anterior margin of pronotum. Frontal rostrum slightly narrower than antennal scape; slightly convex in front view, inclined dorsally and ventrally. Antennal scape shield-like. Median ocellus smallest and transversely ovoid; lateral ocelli rounded. Eyes slightly convex, about 1/3 length of head. Postclypeus shaped as narrow band; anteclypeus shaped as broad shield. Labrum shaped as rhombus, lateral margins angle-like and the apex concave medially. End section of maxillary palpi almost equal to the length of the third; end section of labial palpi depressed and widened, about two times longer than the second.

Pronotum broad and flattened, anterior margin concave and the posterior convex; posterior margin slightly wider than the anterior. Basal margin of metanotal gland straight, laterally convex at the middle and apically sinuated; keels U-shaped and apically assigned at the middle of gland; elongate setae distributed at the middle of gland and this area almost rounded.

Tegmina with oblique veins four. Diagonal vein proximally bifurcated and both branches connected to CuA vein. Chord veins three, connecting to the proximal of mirror by two transverse veins. Mirror shield-like, longer than width; dividing vein straight. Apical field armed with regular reticulate veins. Hindwings longer than tegmina, uncovered portion about two times longer than hind femur.

FIGURE­2.­ Bodies of Z. acutangulata and Z. yunnana . A. Z. acutangulata ; B. Z. yunnana . Scale bar: 10 mm.

Inner tympanum larger than the outer; the outer one oval-like and the inner shaped as elongate oval. Hind tibiae evenly equipped with spines and armed with spurs distally (numbered 5:5); inner apical spurs three (the dorsal one longest, the ventral one shortest and about 1/3 length of the longest, the middle one about 1/2 length of the longest) and outer apical spurs two (equal in length) and about 1/2 length of the longest. Supra-anal plate trapezoidal, the anterior concave and posterior margin straight; the anterior about two times wider than of the posterior margin; concave at middle of super-anal plate.

Genitalia.­ Middle lobes of epiphallus long, erect, shaped as rod and acute apically. Lateral lobes of epiphallus short, included angle between middle lobe and lateral lobe form a right angle. Epiphallus ventrally possessing two lateral projections, anterior one rod-like (apically rounded, about 1/3 length of middle lobe of epiphallus) and caudal one sheet-like (ventrally concave and armed with dense and sharp denticles, and dorsal margin flat). Ectoparamere apically bifurcated with upper branch apically rounded (about 1/2 length of the lower) and lower branch apically acute. Guiding rod shovel-like, proximally widened and apically slightly acute.

Coloration.­ Body colored brown. Occiput light brown; ocelli yellow; eyes brown; antennal scape yellowish brown; labrum light brown. Pronotum dark brown, ornamented with axe-shaped pattern which yellowish brown. Tegmina brown. Hind tibiae dark brown.

Female unknown.

FIGURE­3.­ Metanotal glands (A–C) and supra-anal plates (D–F) of Zvenella species. A and D. Z. acutangulata ; B and E. Z. yunnana ; C and F. Z. geniculata .

FIGURE­4.­ Genitalia of Z. acutangulata . A. dorsal view; B. lateral view; C. ventral view; D. caudal viewed; E. inside of male genitalia, lateral view; F. guiding rod, ventral view; G. guiding rod, lateral view.

Remarks. Ma and Zhang (2012) identified some Hainan specimens as Z. scalpratus , which resemble Z. acutangulata and it was thought there might be some differences between them. The authors argued that they were different in ventral projections and lateral lobes of epiphallus as well as characters of supra-anal plate. After examining about twenty specimens from Hainan, Guangxi and Yunnan, we found these differences are intraspecific variation. In addition, based on our collections and literature records, Z. acutangulata should possess a broad distributional range. Thus, we consider that Z. scalpratus should be junior synonym of Z. acutangulata .