Brachyplatyphylloides riosi, Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J. & Braun, Holger, 2011

Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J. & Braun, Holger, 2011, A new brachypterous genus of Platyphyllini (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae) from Colombia, Zootaxa 2763, pp. 34-38 : 36

Brachyplatyphylloides riosi sp. nov.

Holotype: Male, Colombia, departamento de Cundinamarca, La Vega, “B. Humedo” (bosque húmedo?), leg. S. Zuñiga, 5 November 2005, depository: Museo de Historia Natural del Instituto de Ciencias Naturales de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia ( ICN), Bogotá.

Paratypes (3 males and 4 females): 1 male in ICN: departamento Boyacá, Santa María, Sector “La Almenara”, 1400 m, leg. G. Amat, 17 April 1997 (ICN-MHN OR 314); 3 females in ICN: 2 from departamento Meta, Puerto López, Cafam Llanos, “Bosque Caporal” (ICN-MHN OR 00519), 1 from Cundinamarca, Medina, Vereda Choapal , 840 m, leg. Sist. Avanz, 26 August 1986. 1 female in Facultad de Agronomía de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia ( UNAB): Meta,Villavicencio, 15 de Octubre de 1994 ( OJCC &BH-008). 1 males in Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad Javeriana, Bogotá ( MUJ): Meta, San Martin, Vereda San Jacinto, 330 m, 22 April 2006 (ORT 062) and 1 male in Museo de Historia Natural de la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (MUD 046); Meta, Remolino, 300 m, 18 March 1993 (MPUJ-ORT 1265).

Description. Coloration: Light brown, head dark brown, in males the dorsal surface of the pronotum bright orange-yellow, femora mottled with the same or somewhat lighter and more yellowish colour; ventrally fairly light. Head: Antennal scapus with small apical spine. Thorax: Pronotum granulated, the posterior transverse furrow is crossed by a median furrow that extends into half of the mesozona. Tegmina in males and females about half as long as pronotum (in male little longer than the stridulatory apparatus), covering only part of the first abdominal tergite. Legs: Fore and middle femur quadrangular, each with four ventral spines; hind femur slender and uniformly narrowed from base to tip and with seven ventral spines; all genicular lobes armed; tibiae thin. Abdomen: Shape convex. Male subgenital plate terminally narrowed and with a v-shaped emargination, styli a little shorter than the narrow portion of the plate and with somewhat lanceolate shape. Male cerci small, the terminal third rectangularly curved downward, apex strongly sclerotized. Female subgenital plate terminally with very shallow emargination, ovipositor strong and straight, apical half blackened.

Measurements. Total body length: males 30–37 mm, females 34–35 mm; pronotum length: males 6–7 mm, females 8 mm; tegmina length: males 3–4 mm, females 4 mm; hind femur: males 16–20 mm, females 17–20 mm, ovipositor: 15–17 mm (based on 4 males and 3 females).

Distribution. Central Colombia, departamentos Cundinamarca, Boyacá and Meta, on eastern slope of eastern cordillera, known altitudinal range 300– 850 m.

Etymology. This species is dedicated to Miguel Antonio Ríos Guevara, a young student of biology at the Universidad Incca de Colombia in Bogotá, who had just started out to become an orthopterist. We were shocked to learn about his death on August 14 in the crash of an intercity bus on which he was traveling.