Afroanthracites pseudodiscolor Hemp C., 2015
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publication ID |
https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s13127-014-0194-2 |
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persistent identifier |
https://treatment.plazi.org/id/8F7DAA35-FFC4-FFC7-FF23-FC38FECA104D |
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treatment provided by |
Felipe |
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scientific name |
Afroanthracites pseudodiscolor Hemp C. |
| status |
sp. nov. |
Afroanthracites pseudodiscolor Hemp C. View in CoL n. sp.
Holotype male, Tanzania, West Usambara Mountains , Lutindi Forest, 1300 m, March 2014; depository: MfN.
Paratypes: 1 female, same data as holotype, depository: MfN . 1 male, same data as holotype, depository: BNMH .
Further paratype material: 3 males, same data as holotype ; 7 males, 2 females, same data as holotype but October 2014. Collection C. Hemp.
Description: male. General colour hazelnut brown with black markings on head and pronotum and a pattern of cream, green and darker brown on abdomen ( Fig. 6). Head and antennae: eyes round and conspicuous white in living insect ( Fig. 6). Fastigium verticis conical, longer than scapus, black; face uniformly coloured, of same brown colour as remaining head and pronotum; some individuals with faint tri-angled shaped darker fascia medially but usually without fascia on face. Antennae long, about 7 cm in length, scapus and first antennal segments dark brown, remaining segments red-brown ( Fig. 6). Thorax: pronotum shiny with many shallow dots; uniformly hazelnut brown with dark green elongate patch along anterior margin of lateral lobes, and another dark patch at border between meso- and metazona of lateral lobes and sometimes anterior margin of pronotum of dark brown colour; this pattern fading in preserved insect. The tegmina for most of their length hidden under pronotum, posterior margin visible; reduced to stridulatory area and a short apical flap. Legs: dark brown with lighter brown colour as on disc of pronotum around joints. Fore and mid femora with 2–3 outer ventral spines, unarmed on inner sides. Fore and mid tibiae with 5 ventral spines on each margin. Fore tibiae with conchate tympana, slightly swollen in this area. Hind femora with 5 broad-based spines ventrally. Hind tibiae armed with numerous small spinules in a ventral row and two dorsal rows along whole length getting distally denser. Abdomen: abdomen with pattern of green, cream and black stripes ( Fig. 6). Tenth abdominal tergite black in anterior half, whitish to light brown in down-curved apical half, medially divided by a deep sulcus in pale coloured area. Both sides of cream-coloured area like triangles, posterior margin straight ( Fig. 9h View Fig ). Cerci in situ hidden under tenth abdominal tergite, cream-coloured, tri-dentate with an inner oriented bidentate part and brown sclerotized tips which is laterally compressed, and an outer part which is conical, strongly inflated at base and with numerous hairs and an acute sclerotized tip ( Fig. 10c View Fig ). Subgenital plate elongated, divided into two lobes with long and slender styli, posterior area up-curved ( Fig. 10a, e View Fig ).
Female: general habitus and colour pattern as male with long and stout ovipositor, moderately up-curved. Last abdominal tergite medially v-shaped incised, margins of incision forming two short processes with acute tips ( Fig. 7). Cerci of normal shape, conical. Subgenital plate broad, medially incised at posterior margin ( Fig. 8a View Fig ).
Measurements, males (mm) (n =5). Body length 23–27. Length of pronotum 10.5–11.4. Length of hind femur 12.1–12.5.
Measurements, females (mm) (n = 3). Body length 23.2– 33.1. Length of pronotum 7.1–7.6. Length of hind femur 13.4–15.8. Length of ovipositor 12–13.8.
Diagnosis: very similar to A. discolor Hemp, Ingrisch & Ünal, 2013 and thus easily distinguished from all other Afroanthracites species because of the conspicuous colour pattern and the last abdominal tergite in males which is divid- ed into two halves at its posterior third. Distinguished from A. discolor by a different colour pattern. The pronotum is almost uniformly brown in A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. while A. discolor has scattered green and yellow patches centrally on the pronotal disc and especially on the lateral lobes. The colour pattern on the abdomen also differs in both species: A. discolor has a light brown triangle medially on each abdominal segment bordered by a thin black line while the lateral sides are vivid green with brown stripes anteriorly on each abdominal segment. In A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. the medial row of triangles is missing, replaced by a dull cream fascia ( Fig. 6). The segments are green laterally, bordered posteriorly and anteriorly by light brown to beige fascia on each abdominal segment. The very border of the posterior margin of each abdominal segment is marked by a thin black fascia giving the abdomen a ‘striped’ pattern. The last abdominal tergite in males is similarly coloured in both species, the anterior part being shiny black while the posterior part is white (fading in the preserved insect to more beige to greenish) and deeply divided into two halves by a central furrow ( Fig. 9g, h View Fig ). However, while in A. discolor , the posterior white part is almost at one level with the shiny black anterior part, this area is strongly down-curved and each side triangular shaped in A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. has a slightly longer fastigium verticis being longer than the scapus while it is about the length of the scapus in A. discolor . The male cerci are morphologically similar in both species consisting of an outer branch ending in an acute tip and a laterally compressed inner branch forming two acute tips. The outer branch is strongly inflated in A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. ( Fig. 10c, e View Fig ) but less so in A. discolor . The face of A. discolor shows a well-developed triangle-shaped black area while in A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. face is in most specimens uniformly brown and of the same colour as head and pronotum.
Females of both species differ as males in their colour pattern, the pattern of triangles medially on the abdominal tergites missing in A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. and the shape of the subgenital plate. A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. has an almost square subgenital plate with an evenly incurved posterior margin while in A. discolor the posterior margin is more abruptly and deeply incurved and thus forming two lateral edges.
Distribution: Tanzania; West Usambara Mountains. At present, only known from the Lutindi Forest.
Song: see Bioacoustics ( Figs. 12 View Fig and 15 View Fig ).
Ecology and Biology: night-active species. Males cling to branches inside of bushes performing their song at night. The calling song is clearly audible and consists of single echemes produced monotonously (see Bioacoustics, Figs. 12 View Fig and 15 View Fig ). Predaceous, feeds on other insects. In October 2014, a month usually very dry in northern Tanzania, found restricted to a small area around a fresh water lake suggesting that A. pseudodiscolor n. sp. needs a high air humidity.
Habitat: humid submontane forest and forest edge. Lutindi Forest receives a mean annual precipitation of 1600 mm.
Ecological niche of Afroanthracites species
A. montium covers on Mt Kilimanjaro a broad ecological niche, specimens recorded on all sides of the mountain inhabiting an elevation range of 1400 m (1250–2650 m). Habitats occupied lay in humid and perhumid conditions, and specimens being caught at its lower border of occurrence in riverine forests where humid conditions persist at lower altitudes were common species in coffee banana plantations between 1400 and 1600 m in the submontane zone and was also one of the most frequent caught Orthoptera species in montane forest ( Fig. 17). Its upper limit of occurrence coincides with first nocturnal frosts around 2700 m ( Hemp 2006a).
Along the gradient between 1250 to 2650 m mean annual temperature and mean annual minimum temperature decreased from 19.3 to 11.3 °C and 10.0 to 2.0 °C, and rainfall increased from about 900 mm at the western and northern slopes at 1500–2000 m (i.e. border subhumid to humid conditions) to over 2800 mm (i.e. perhumid conditions). A. montium is also a common species on Mt Meru where it was recorded in humid forest between 1700 and 2000 m.
Ecological data for the forest reserves of the West and East Usambara Mountains were taken from Hamilton (1989) and Iversen (1991) and integrated in the calculation of the ecological niche of the species. Although temperature differences depending on the elevation and mass of the single mountains and mountain ranges are possible all forest areas in which Afroanthracites species occurred where humid conditions persisted ( Fig. 17 and Table 2).
Bioacoustics
| MfN |
Museum für Naturkunde |
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