Bambuina bambui

De Mello, Francisco De A. G., Horta, Lília S. & Bolfarini, Marcio P., 2013, Bambuina bambui: a new genus and species of cave cricket from Brazil (Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Phalangopsidae: Luzarinae), Zootaxa 3599 (1), pp. 87-93 : 89-92

Bambuina bambui de Mello, Horta & Bolfarini n. sp.

(Table I; figs. 1 to 25)

Etymology. species named after the Brazilian speleology team "Grupo Bambuí de Pesquisas Espeleológicas", of which the second author of this article is a member.

Material examined: Holotype male, Brazil, MG, Mariana, Gruta do Centenário, 5-6/iv/1996, L. S. Horta (leg.); Paratypes: 6 males, 5 females, same locality, 2-6/xi/1997, same collector.

Repository: Holotype male, 2 male, 4 female paratypes at Museu de Zoologia da Universidade de São Paulo ( MZSP); 4 male, 3 female paratypes at the Entomological Collection, Botucatu Campus of São Paulo State University- UNESP- Brazil.

Description. Male: general coloration medium brown to light yellow (fig. 15); occiput light brown with four yellowish vittae, the two external ones incomplete, running half-way from edge of eyes towards hind margin of head (vittae indistinct in some specimens); antennal sockets broad and depressed, yellowish on dorsal and ventral surfaces but darker laterally; flagellum light brown, more than 3 times as long as body; gena light yellow; frons and vertex medium brown; clypeus light yellow, inflated; labrum nearly white (fig. 16); maxillary palpi light yellow, distal half of 5th joint whitish (fig. 19); external upper portion of mandibles nearly white. Pronotum saddle-shaped, the disk light yellow surrounded by a broad light brown band along the margins (fig. 15). Forewings mostly light brown but yellowish in the apical region and along the longitudinal vein (fig. 22). Metanotum and supra-anal plate yellowish, shaped as in figs. 6 and 7 respectively. Subgenital plate (figs. 8; 25) with a large whitish central area surrounded by light brown; remaining sternites nearly white. Legs I and II rather long, the color varying from nearly white to medium brown; leg III not especially long for the group. Phallic complex as in figs. 9 to 12. Female: rather similar to male; forewings reduced to a scale barely visible beyond pronotal margin; hind margin of supra-anal plate broadly concave with rounded angles; copulatory papilla as in figs. 13 and 14.

Discussion. The elongated shape of male forewings and the presence of a glandular area at the tips of Bambuina bambui , n. sp. resemble some species of Eidmanacris (Chopard, 1956) , but the rolled down condition of wing tips is an autapomorphy of the new genus.

The presence of a pair of dorso-lateral laminar pseudepiphallic spine in Bambuina is a condition shared with several other genera, e.g., Eidmanacris ; Strinatia Chopard, 1970 ; Endophallusia de Mello, 1990; Grandcolasia Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 (originally named Smicrotes ); Ottedana de Mello & de Andrade, 2003 and Adenopygus Bolfarini & de Mello, 2012.

The reduced size and inconspicuousness of pseudepiphallic paramere I in Bambuina is also found in Guabamima de Mello, 1993 and Mellopsis Mews et al., 2010 [in their article, the authors have misidentified the pseudepiphallic paramere I in Mellopsis doucasae , Mellopsis zefae (this last species clearly belonging to an undescribed genus that one of us- FAGM- have collected in the States of Espirito Santo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and in the three species of Guabamima they have described]. As opposed to that, the pseudepiphallic paramere I is well developed and conspicuous in the following genera: Bambuina , Eidmanacris , Endophallusia , Strinatia , Grandcolasia , Ottedana and Adenopygus .

The hyper-development of pseudepiphallic paramere II is also shared by Bambuina , Guabamima and Mellopsis doucasae , as well as in more distanlty related genera like Aracamby de Mello, 1993; Vanzoliniella de Mello & Cesar dos Reis, 1994, and the incorrect Mellopsis zefae of Mews et al., 2010.

In Bambuina , Eidmanacris , Endophallusia , Grandcolasia , Strinatia , Ottedana and Adenopygus , the endophallic sclerite is extremely variable in size but in all those genera, only a dorsal, lamelliform or crest-shaped apodeme is present (sometimes confined to the anterior extremity of the structure, as in Eidmanacris , Endophallusia and Grandcolasia ). On the other hand, in Guabamima , Mellopsis , and in the undescribed new genus in which Mews et al., 2010 placed) Mellopsis zefai the endophallic sclerite has a pair of large antero-lateral apodemes, a very different condition than that in the former cases.

For more information on the phallic complexes of this group of crickets, see the discussion in de Mello & de Andrade, 2003.

Additional remarks. One of us (LSH) observed these crickets during day and night time on the walls and floor of the cave, the latter being covered by meters of bird guano ( Apodidae : Streptoprocnes zonaris and S. biscutata ). Cricket specimens were found all over the cave but the relative abundance decreases in the aphotic zone, as well as the guano concentration.