Pterochrozinae, Walker, 1870

Mugleston, Joseph D., Naegle, Michael, Song, Hojun & Whiting, Michael F., 2018, A Comprehensive Phylogeny of Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera: Ensifera) Reveals Extensive Ecomorph Convergence and Widespread Taxonomic Incongruence, Insect Systematics and Diversity (AIFB) 2 (4), No. 5, pp. 1-27 : 21

Pterochrozinae Group

The earliest divergence in the Tettigonioid clade gave rise to the Pterochrozinae group ( Fig. 10 ). Pterochrozinae was recently elevated from a tribe within Pseudophyllinae to a subfamily ( Braun 2015) based on the results of Mugleston et al. (2013) where it was made evident Pterochrozinae was not closely related to the other pseudophyllines. The impressive leaf-like disguises of Pterochrozinae have made them the quintessential example of katydid crypsis. Pterochrozinae split from their most recent non-leaf-like ancestor roughly 80 MYA. The diversification of this group coincides with the rapid diversification of angiosperms ( Magallón and Castillo 2009) which may have contributed to the Neotropical radiation of these leaf-like katydids. The positions of Platydecticus and Arachnoscelis as sister to the Pterochrozinae are not well supported (pp 0.86 and 0.74, respectively). The taxonomic position of Arachnoscelis has been questioned in the past. Gorochov (1995b) thought this genus would be best placed within the Phisidini though others have proposed this genus being part of the ‘catch-all’ subfamily Listroscelidinae ( Rentz 2001, Fialho et al. 2014). The authors’ earlier phylogenetic work placed this subfamily as sister to the Neotropical tribe Phlugidini ( Mugleston et al. 2013) and these results were the basis for Cadena-Castañeda and García (2014) proposing Arachnoscelis to be separate from the other Meconematinae and possibly along with Phlugidini a separate subfamily from the remaining Meconematinae . Our results place Arachnoscelis as a sister lineage to the Neotropical Pterochrozinae group and it seems apparent that this genus is not closely related to others currently described under Meconematinae or Listroscelidinae . Another taxon in the Pterochrozinae group is the shieldback genus Platydecticus . Under the current taxonomy, this genus of WG diminutive shieldback katydid is within the Tettigoniinae tribe Nedubini . Our results further support the arguments against including Platydecticus within Tettigoniinae ( Rentz 1979, Cole and Chiang 2016).

Figures

Fig. 10. Pterochrozinae group.Vertical bars indicate subtribes, tribes, and subfamilies. Paraphyletic groups are marked with an asterisk. Posterior probability values over 90 are marked with a circle at the node. Photo credits are as follows: (Arachnoscelis sp.) (Karny, 1911) Reinaldo Aguilar, (Typophyllum sp.) (Serville, 1838) Arthur Anker.