Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas

Desutter-Grandcolas, Laure & Faberon, Léo, 2020, Phalangopsidae crickets (Orthoptera, Grylloidea) from the Mitaraka biological survey, French Guiana, Zoosystema 42 (32), pp. 739-797 : 768-769

Tribe Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas , n. tribe

Aclodae – Desutter-Grandcolas 1992b: 172 (name not available in the frame of the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature.)

TYPE GENUS. — Aclodes Hebard, 1928b .

REMARK

Saussure (1874) defined the genus Heterogryllus for one female originating from Brazil, described as Heterogryllus ocellaris . Two other species have been described in the genus, Heterogryllus crassicornis Saussure, 1878 and Heterogryllus bordoni Chopard, 1970 , transferred to Aclodes Hebard, 1928 and Paraclodes Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 n. stat. respectively (see Desutter-Grandcolas 1992 b, 2014). In molecular-based phylogenetic analyses (Chintauan-Marquier et al. 2013, 2016; Warren et al. 2019), Aclodes and Paraclodes n. stat. constitute a well-separate clade within the Paragryllinae . According to the morphological characters used to define the ‘Aclodae’ group of genera (Desutter-Grandcolas 1992b), Uvaroviella Chopard, 1923 also belongs to this clade. Among other genera, Heterogryllus , Aclodes , Paraclodes n. stat. and Uvaroviella are presently classified in the subtribe Heterogryllina of the subfamily Phalangopsinae ( Cigliano et al. 2020) , a relationship not supported by the morphological characteristics of Heterogryllus ( Saussure 1874, Desutter-Grandcolas pers. obs.). The tribe Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas n. tribe is defined here for Aclodes , Paraclodes n. stat. and Uvaroviella .

DIAGNOSIS. — After Desutter-Grandcolas (1992b). Size small to medium. General coloration dark brown, marbled with black and light brown; face usually ornated with yellow marks; tibiae and apex of femura circled with yellow, outer side of femora striated with yellow. TI with a small, oval inner tympanum; no outer tympanum. TIII with 4/4 subapical spurs; with 2/3 apical spurs, inner ventral apical spur regressed. Basitarsomere III with only one row of dorsal spines (lost in Paraclodes bordoni (Chopard, 1970)) . Head small and vertical, longer than wide in front view; fastigium very narrow; article 5 of maxillary palpi little widened toward apex, truncated straight. Wings never developed in both males and females. Cerci and antennae very long. Male genitalia: pseudepiphallic sclerite well-developed but flat, more or less triangular; median lophi flat, prolonging pseudepiphallic sclerite; rami elongated; endophallic sclerite long and narrow; endophallic apodemes (both lateral lamellae and longitudinal median crest) little developed. Females: FWs shorter than in males or absent. Ovipositor straigth, compressed laterally, with short apex. Female genitalia: copulatory papilla very small and little sclerotized, never plicated nor greatly elongate.

Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas n. tribe is a very homogenous clade as far as morphology and male genitalia are concerned. Differences between genera and species relate mainly to male and female genitalia, size, length of FW and ovipositor, number of stridulatory teeth in males and face coloration.

Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas n. tribe can be superficially confused with other genera of Paragryllinae , from which they can be easily separated by the number of TIII subapical and apical spurs, spines of basitarsomere III, FW shape in males, and male and female genitalia.

HABITAT. — Aclodini Desutter-Grandcolas n. tribe are nocturnal species, active at night on tree trunks. They hide during the day in cavities such as burrows, hollow trees, or cave entrance when available (see Desutter-Grandcolas 1992b).

INCLUDED GENERA. — Aclodes Hebard, 1928 , Paraclodes Desutter-Grandcolas, 1992 n. stat., Uvaroviella Chopard, 1923 s. str. (see below). Gorochov (2007) subdivided Uvaroviella into nine subgenera (including Aclodes and Paraclodes ), defined in an identification key mostly after non-discrete characters of male genitalia added with variable wing characters. These taxonomic entities, which are based on a very incomplete study of the characters of the taxa, are at least inadequate for taxonomic studies and their monophyly cannot be reasonably assessed. In the Orthoptera Species File Online, Aclodes is restored as a genus, but neither the position of all the species described in Aclodes and subsequently transferred in diverse Uvaroviella subgenera by Gorochov (2007 and later papers), nor the status of the other subgenera are reconsidered (see Cigliano et al. 2020). To stabilize the classification and avoid non-monophyletic taxa, we here follow Cigliano et al. for Aclodes and similarly restore Paraclodes as an independent genus, using the original definitions of the two genera: several subgenera are consequently synonymized with Aclodes or Paraclodes n. stat. The analysis of the variation of their morphological characters will have to be really performed to further study species relationships.