Arethaea Stål, 1876

HEADS, SAM W., THOMAS, M. JARED, HEDLUND, TYLER J. & WANG, YINAN, 2023, A new fossil katydid of the genus Arethaea Stål (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) with exceptionally preserved internal organs from the Eocene Green River Formation of Colorado, Palaeoentomology 6 (3), pp. 268-277 : 270

Genus Arethaea Stål, 1876

Arethaea Stål, 1876, p. 55 . Type species: Ephippitytha gracilipes Thomas (= Arethaea gracilipes gracilipes ) by monotypy and original designation.

Aegipan Scudder, 1877, p. 38 . Type species: Ephippitytha gracilipes Thomas (= Arethaea gracilipes gracilipes ), synonymized by Kirby (1906).

Remarks. Arethaea is a very distinctive genus and unique among North American katydids in having extremely long and slender legs and very narrow tegmina in males ( Hebard, 1936; Capinera et al., 2004). No other North American Phaneropterinae possess such thin and elongate appendages, making them unmistakable and giving rise to their common name, “thread-legged katydids.” Sixteen extant species of Arethaea are known, all of which occur in the southernmost United States and in Mexico, namely: A. ambulator Hebard ; A. arachnopyga Rehn & Hebard ; A. brevicauda (Scudder) ; A. carita Scudder ; A. constricta Brunner von Wattenwyl [treated as two subspecies: A. c. constricta and A. c. comanche Hebard]; A. coyotero Hebard ; the type species A. gracilipes (Thomas) [treated as three subspecies: A. g. cerciata Hebard, A. g. gracilipes (Thomas) , and A. g. papago Hebard]; A. grallator (Scudder) ; A. insaroides Rehn & Hebard ; A. limifera Rehn & Hebard ; A. mescalero Hebard ; A. phalangium (Scudder) ; A. phantasma Rehn & Hebard ; A. polingi Hebard ; A. sellata Rehn ; and A. semialata Rehn & Hebard.