Miogryllus itaquiensis Orsini & Zefa, 2017

Sultana, Riffat, Sanam, Surriya, Kumar, Santosh, R, Sheik Mohammad Shamsudeen & Soomro, Fakhra, 2021, A review of Gryllidae (Grylloidea) with the description of one new species and four new distribution records from the Sindh Province, Pakistan, ZooKeys 1078, pp. 1-33 : 1

publication ID	https://dx.doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1078.69850
publication LSID	lsid:zoobank.org:pub:573D4067-16A2-4E20-859D-354DFAF83B4D
persistent identifier	https://treatment.plazi.org/id/0D4A560B-281E-5E78-807B-06939200545F
treatment provided by	ZooKeys by Pensoft
scientific name	Miogryllus itaquiensis Orsini & Zefa, 2017
status

Treatment

Figures 1 View Figure 1 , 2 View Figure 2 , 3 View Figure 3 , 4 View Figure 4 , 5 View Figure 5 , 6 View Figure 6 , 7 View Figure 7 , 8 View Figure 8 , 9 View Figure 9 , 10 View Figure 10 , 11 View Figure 11

Material examined.

Pakistan, Sindh Prov. • 1♀; Riffat ; 5 Sep. 2019; Chachro, Nagarparkar 24.3572°N, 70.7555°E GoogleMaps .

Description.

Medium size. Colouration brown (Fig. 1O View Figure 1 ). Head black bright and globous; whitish spot posteriorly containing scape and following inner margins of eyes, becoming punctuated with brown with white stripe before reaching occiput (Fig. 3D View Figure 3 ). Pronotum black with pubescence, dorsal disc wider than long, bristles on anterior and posterior margins; lateral lobes marked with antero-ventral whitish spot which becomes pale brown posteriorly (Fig. 5E View Figure 5 ). Elytra extending to two-thirds of abdomen, apical field well developed. Wing surpassing abdomen tip (Fig. 10B View Figure 10 ). Legs dark brown dorsally, whitish ventrally. Tibia armed with nine internal, four medio-internal spines (Fig. 7B View Figure 7 ). Abdomen black, sternites whitish. Cerci pale brown, short. Ovipositor long, slender, straight with lanceolate apical valves (Fig. 1O View Figure 1 ).

Female: LH 03 (mm), LP 3.1 (mm), LT 09 (mm), LF 10 (mm), LT 0.8 (mm), LT 4.2 (mm), TBL 12 (mm).

Ecology.

This species was reported from Chachro, Nagarparkar on Encelia farinose roots. This plant is commonly known as the Brittle bush. It is a medium-sized, rounded shrub with long, oval, silvery grey leaves. The resin collected from this plant is used as glue (Hogan and Michael 2013); these authors also stated that Brittle bush treats toothaches. Some animals such as desert Bighorn sheep and Kangaroo rats eat its seeds.

Global distribution.

Argentina, Brazil South, Rio Grande do Sul, Itaqui, Sindh, Pakistan ( Cigliano et al. 2020).

Remarks.

The pronotum of M. itaquiensis bears a whitish lateral lobe, while M. tucumanensis has the pronotum with uniform colouration. We collected a single female for the first time from Chachro, Sindh, Pakistan. However, more extensive surveys are needed to explore its distribution in the desert region.