Liotettix Bolívar, 1906

Silva, Daniela Santos Martins, Cadena-Castañeda, Oscar J., Pereira, Marcelo Ribeiro, Domenico, Fernando Campos De & Sperber, Carlos Frankl, 2019, New tribes, overview and checklist of Neotropical Cladonotinae (Orthoptera: Caelifera: Tetrigidae), Insecta Mundi 723 (723), pp. 1-38 : 32

Liotettix Bolívar, 1906 , stat. rev.

This genus was previously considered a junior synonym of Dasyleurotettix Rehn, 1904 . Dasyleurotettix sensu Cigliano et al. (2018) has a widespread distribution, found in the Neotropical and Ethiopian regions (see Cigliano et al. 2018), and contains five species: D. affinis (Bruner, 1920) ( Argentina) ; D. infaustus ( Walker, 1871) (Southern Africa); D. lobulatus (Stål, 1861) ( Brazil) ; D. miserabilis (Blanchard, 1851) ( Chile) and D. sublaevis (Bolívar, 1912) (West-Central Tropical Africa) ( Cigliano et al. 2018). The type species of Dasyleurotettix is D. infaustus ( Walker, 1871) , and this species presents a less widened fascial carina of the frontal costa than Cladonotus or other similar taxa indicated by Rehn (1904): Diotarus Stål, 1877 and Trachytettix Stål, 1876 . Rehn (1907) wrote that after examining the types of Dasyleurotettix , he was convinced that this taxon should be placed within the Tetriginae .

From the available information on this genus, it is suggested to separate the taxa of Africa and America. The three species with Neotropical distribution are herein transferred to the genus Liotettix Bolívar, 1906 stat. rev.: Liotettix lobulatus (Stål, 1861) (type species) rev. comb., L. affinis n. comb. and L. miserabilis rev. comb., and the genus is concurrently transferred from Cladonotinae to subfamily Tetriginae , without further tribal assignment. We do not consider Rytinatettix Hancock, 1909 as valid, since that author justifies the change of name to Liotettix , by writing “The genus Prototettix Bol. , preoccupied now Liotettix Bol. as given by Bruner, l. c., p. 122, is confined to Africa” ( Hancock 1914). This is not true, since the type species of Liotettix , Prototettix fossulatus Bolívar, 1887 (currently L. lobulatus ), was found in Brazil. Additionally, we keep Liotettix in Tetriginae , where Bolivar (1887) originally placed it, when it was called Prototettix , because it has the diagnostic characters of this subfamily.

The two African species of Dasyleurotettix ( Dasyleurotettix infaustus (type species) and D. sublaevis ) are not cladonotines according to Skejo (2018), who writes: “Related to Pelusca Bolivar 1912 and both members of Criotettigini (note U-shaped carinae), not Cladonotinae .” We agree with Skejo’s assessment of these species, and formally transfer both of them from Cladonotinae to tribe Criotettigini ( Tetrigidae : Scelimeninae ).