Isophya modesta

Dragan P. Chobanov, Beata Grzywacz, Ionuţ Ş. Iorgu, Battal Cιplak, Maya B. Ilieva & Elżbieta Warchałowska-Śliwa, 2013, Review of the Balkan Isophya (Orthoptera: Phaneropteridae) with particular emphasis on the Isophya modesta group and remarks on the systematics of the genus based on morphological and acoustic data, Zootaxa 3658 (1), pp. 1-81 : 19

3. Isophya modesta species group

The group exhibits intermediate characters between these of I. rectipennis group and a number of more specialised (mostly) Central European species. The body is large to very large for the genus, moderately stout to massive. Hind femur is usually longer than 20 mm. The width of fastigium verticis is 1/2 to 3/4 of the width of scapus. The disc of pronotum is not saddle-shaped but frequently is considerably extended backwards and moderately raised in metazone. The sulcus dividing the pro- and metazone passes about the middle of pronotum. Male tegmina are elongated but the stridulatory part predominates. The tegmen is equal or up to about 1/3 times longer than pronotum. CuP is moderately to strongly widened and has variable length within the group; CuP and CuA are moderately to strongly attached (especially in I. longicaudata and I. rhodopensis petkovi ). The stridulatory file is well developed, wide and bears 55–180 teeth. Female tegmen has oval (as in I. rectipennis group) or slightly blunt apex and intermediate venation (parallel along its costal margin getting almost reticulate on its dorsal surface). The lower keels of hind femur have usually 1 spine each; rarely spines are not developed (in I. bureschi ). Male cercus is massive, characteristically angularly incurved at its apical third (compare Figs 84–96 ). The apex of cercus has a large subapically situated tooth, which may be conical or crest-shaped. Female ovipositor is always long for the genus, more than 2.3 times longer than pronotum, except in I. yaraligozi and I. tosevski , or rarely in I. rhodopensis petkovi ; the dorsal edge of the lower valve (lamella) rounds the gonangulum and forms a widely opened pit. The body colouration is greenish with or without dorsal light or pink bands. The lateral edges of pronotum have reddish to black coloured stripe situated only in the metazone over the light band. Melanism is always absent. The song consists of isolated or groups of syllables that may be compact or divided into main and additional part. The main part lasts from about 30 up to more than 1000 ms with the additional part becoming up to more than 10 s in I. modesta . The X-chromosome is subacrocentric (type 2A or 2B according to Warchałowska-Śliwa et al. 2008; both types may occur within species complexes or even within a species).

Herewith we consider the group with 14 taxa (10 species): I. andreevae , I. bureschi , I. yaraligozi , I. clara , I. longicaudata adamovici , I. longicaudata longicaudata , I. miksici , I. modesta modesta , I. modesta rossica , I. rhodopensis leonorae , stat.n. (= I. kisi , syn.n.), I. rhodopensis rhodopensis , I. rhodopensis petkovi , stat.n., I. plevnensis (= I. pravdini pravdini , syn.n.), I. tosevski . The taxon I. pravdini bazyluki is considered in another species group (see below). I. modesta group is distributed on the Balkan Peninsula (South to Northeastern Greece) with one species reaching Central and Eastern Europe and an isolated distribution of I. yaraligozi in Norhwestern Anatolia. With the aim of revision and to present an overview of this complicated group we consider all of its taxa below.

Figures

FIGURES 80 – 104. Male abdominal terminalia of the Balkan Isophya and I. yaraligozi (localities as in Figs 31 – 55): 80 — I. hospodar; 81 — I. rectipennis; 82 — I. pavelii; 83 — I. thracica; 84 — I. bureschi; 85 — I. yaraligozi; 86 — I. tosevski; 87 — I. andreevae; 88 — I. clara; 89 — I. miksici; 90 — I. plevnensis; 91 — I. longicaudata adamovici; 92 — I. l. longicaudata; 93 — I. m. modesta (= intermedia); 94 — I. rhodopensis leonorae; 95 — I. rh. rhodopensis; 96 — I. rh. petkovi; 97 — I. modestior; 98 — I. dobrogensis; 99 — I. zubowskii; 100 — I. aff. camptoxypha; 101 — I. gulae; 102 — I. obtusa; 103 — I. amplipennis; 104 — I. speciosa. Scale (if present) = 2 mm.