Liara Redtenbacher, 1891

Gorochov, A. V., 2020, Taxonomy of the katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from East Asia and adjacent islands. Communication 13, Far Eastern Entomologist 400, pp. 1-36 : 7-8

Genus Liara Redtenbacher, 1891

Type species: Liara rufescens Redtenbacher, 1891 , by subsequent designation (Kirby,

1906).

NOTE. Ingrisch (1998) included in this genus several species previously described in the genera Liara , Acanthocoryphus Karny, 1907 and Oxystethus Redtenbacher, 1891 (the latter name was changed into Unalianus Koçak et Kemal, 2009 in connection with homonymy).

Status of the second taxon was reduced by him up to subgeneric one. But for some species from the third taxon, the genus Oxystethus was preserved, although these species have almost all their morphological characters very similar to those of Liara s. str. and Acanthocoryphus

(including very characteristic structure of the distal part of their male cerci; see Figs 42, 44 ).

Probably this author understood that Unalianus (= Oxystethus ) is also a subgenus of Liara s.

str., because he considered all species of these “genera” in the same key (but for the other genera, he prepared separate keys in the same monograph). Possibly, his opinion was based on small differences in shape of the male genitalia: in Liara s. str., these genitalia have a pair of rather large and semisclerotized lobes near middle or subapical parts of the genital sclerites,

and apical parts of these sclerites are situated near each other; but in Unalianus, the male genitalia lack such lobes, and apical parts of the genital sclerites are widely separated from each other. However, these sclerites in Acanthocoryphus are intermediate: with apical parts situated as in Liara s. str., but without additional lobes (i.e. as in Unalianus). It is a reason that the genus Liara s. l. is here considered as consisting of three subgenera: Liara s. str.,

Acanthocoryphus and Unalianus stat. n. These subgenera differ from each other in the abovementioned characters of male genitalia (for comparison see Figs 34, 41, 50 ).

Figures

Figs 31–50. Liara s. l.: 31–36 – L. (Liara) bifurcata sp. n.; 37–43 – L. (Liara) inaculeata