Stephoblemmus humbertiellus Saussure, 1877

Qiao, Min, Zhang, Tao, Wang, Yan & Ma, Libin, 2020, A new species of Loxoblemmus Saussure, 1877 and a new distribution record of the genus Stephoblemmus Saussure, 1877 from China (Orthoptera: Gryllidae; Gryllinae), Zootaxa 4732 (3), pp. 481-487 : 482-484

Stephoblemmus humbertiellus Saussure, 1877

( Figs 1A, B ; 2 A–F; 3A–C; 7)

Stephoblemmus humbertiellus Saussure, 1877: 428

Loxoblemmus nigriceps Chopard, 1933: 120 , syn. nov.

Material examined. China: 5 males and 9 females, Yunnan, Ruili, Mengxiu , 1468m, VI-13-2013, Ma libin coll .; 8 males and 5 females, Xizang, Motuo County, V-31-2019, Ma libin coll .

Measurements. Male (n=5): BL 9.65±1.24 HL 1.39±0.25, HW 2.77±0.22, PL 2.14±0.07, PW 2.69±0.19, FWL 4.17±0.23, HFL 5.53±0.56; female (n=5): BL 9.21±1.3, HL 1.2±0.2, HW 2.77±0.46, PL 2.08±0.41, PW 2.77±0.23, FWL 3.22±0.87, OL 5.47±1.06.

Diagnosis ( Fig. 1 ). Male. Size small, slender. Head as wide as pronotum, shorter than pronotum. Frons strongly produced forwards, exceeding antennal scape, fan-shaped and thin apically (dry specimens of male possessing feebly arcuate superior margin, but not in living ones). Occiput slightly convex. Face flat, slightly oblique. Median ocellus rounded. Labrum shield-shaped with rounded apical margin. Antennal scape without apical process. Pronotum rather widening in front, anterior and posterior margins straight. Elytra shorter than abdomen; basal field small, shorter than the half length of pronotum. Diagonal vein almost straight, chord veins numbered three, oblique veins two. Mirror rather small, undivided, longer than wide. Apical field almost absent. Fore tibiae armed with both inner and outer tympanum. Outer tympanum developed, long-oval shaped; and the inner one rather small. Posterior tibiae armed with six spines on each side laterally.

Female. Sized small. Head convex, shorter than the pronotum. Frons wide, slightly produced forwards. Median ocellus oval. Pronotum transverse, with anterior margin slightly concave, and posterior margin almost straight. Elytra shorter, about half length of abdomen. Ovipositor shaped as spear, about one-half of the body length.

Coloration. Body mainly blackish or dark brown. Head blackish, area around ocelli colored light yellowish or yellowish. Maxillary palpi dark brown proximally, with the 4th and 5th joints whitish, but of which the outer margin dark brown. Antennal scape and antennae brown. Anterior and posterior femora spotted with brown. Cercus and ovipositor brown.

Genitalia ( Fig. 3 ). Middle lobe of epiphallus narrowed, and shorter than lateral lobes, possessing a small protrusion. Lateral lobe obtuse apically and inner edge of it armed with two denticles. Ectoparamere distinctly shorter than lateral lobes. The inner edge of ectoparamere possessing denticles and with obtuse apex.

Remarks. We discovered that there is relationship between L. nigriceps and S. humbertiellus . Males of L. nigriceps present morphological features as follow: size small; face flattened, slightly oblique; antennal scape without apical process; pronotum wider cephalically than caudally; tegmina not surpassing abdomen, diagonal vein nearly straight, oblique veins two or three ( Chopard 1933, 1969, Bhowmik, 1985). All of these features are similar to those of S. humbertiellus . Comparing the morphology with the original description they differed in frons and number of dorsal spurs of posterior tibiae. By examining the our specimens, however, the characters of frons proves to be variable ( Fig. 2 ) and the number of spurs on posterior tibiae changed from four to six. Another fact is that, both in our collections and in the literature, the crickets are distributed sympatrically ( Fig. 7 ). Therefore, we conclude that Loxoblemmus nigriceps Chopard, 1933 is junior synonym of Stephoblemmus humbertiellus Saussure, 1877 .

Figures

FIGURE 1. Body of S. humbertiellus. A, male; B, female. Scale bar: 10mm.

FIGURE 2. Head of S. humbertiellus. A–D. male; E–F. female. A, C, E. front view; B, D, F. lateral view.

FIGURE 3. Genitalia of S. humbertiellus. A. ventral view; B. dorsal view; C. lateral view.

FIGURE 7. Distribution of S. humbertiellus, L.nigriceps and L. rectilineus.