Afrophisis flagellata, Hemp, Claudia, 2013

Hemp, Claudia, 2013, Annotated list of Tettigoniidae (Orthoptera) from the East Usambara Mountains Tanzania and new Tettigoniidae species from East Africa, Zootaxa 3737 (4), pp. 301-350 : 322

Afrophisis Jin & Kevan, 1991

http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera .speciesfile.org:TaxonName:14471

The genus Afrophisis was erected by Jin & Kevan (1991) on Teuthras carminator Bolivar ( Fig. 14A, C , G). Four species are known of which three are distributed in West Africa and only one species, A. tanzanica , known from East Africa. A single male of A. tanzanica was collected by Nick Jago and described by Jin & Kevan (1991). More material was detected in the spirit collection of the zoological museum of Copenhagen. Material from a fogging project undertaken by McKamey et al. (1995) provides a comprehensive overview on the orthopteran canopy fauna of the East and West Usambara Mountains. Here the female of A. tanzanica is described and two new species, A. flagellata n. sp. and A. pseudoflagellata n. sp., from the forests of the East Usambara Mountains in Tanzania. Another two new species occur in the West Usambara Mountains and in coastal forest near Dar es Salaam of central Tanzania.

Most Tanzanian Afrophisis species are characterized by sclerotized, elongated structures arising from the internal genitalic system, produced between supra-anal and subgenital plate. Jin & Kevan (1991) refer to these structures as paraprocts. However, paraprocts are defined as lateral sclerites of the integument and not as parts of the genitalic system. Therefore in the species description in this study these structures which are very conspicuous elements characterizing the species A. tanzanica , A. flagellata n. sp., A. pseudoflagellata n. sp. and A. mazumbaiensis n. sp., are just referred to as sclerotized genitalic structures.

Figures

FIGURE 14. A, C, G. Morphological details of Afrophisis carminator: stridulatory area (A), subgenital plate (C), abdominal apex (G) B, D, E, F. A. pseudoflagellata n. sp.: stridulatory area (B), subgenital plate (D), semi-lateral view (E) and lateral view on abdominal apex (F).