Micrornebius Chopard, 1969

Tan, Ming Kai, 2014, New species of small scaly crickets of genus Micrornebius (Orthoptera: Mogoplistidae; Mogoplistinae) from Singapore, Zootaxa 3895 (1), pp. 117-126 : 118

Genus Micrornebius Chopard, 1969

Micrornebius Chopard, 1969: 203 . Type species: Micrornebius gracilicornis Chopard, 1969

Diagnosis. Very small brown crickets. Maxillary palps with segments usually short, apical segment widened. In males, wings reduced to stridulatory apparatus; completely or nearly completely covered under pronotum. Females apterous. Anterior tibia with inner tympanum. Tenth abdominal tergite and epiproct fuse to form supra-anal plate. Male supra-anal plate usually truncated; paraproct processes small or absent. Colour patterns may be diagnostic if the scales are well-preserved ( Gorochov 1992; Yang & Yen, 2001; Ingrisch, 2006; Tan & Ingrisch, 2013; Tan & Nizam, 2013).

Discussion. The genus Micrornebius was also revised by Ingrisch (2006) where 10 species were added to the genus and six new species were described. Since then, two other species from the Malay Peninsula ( Singapore and Peninsular Malaysia) were described: Micrornebius kopisua Tan & Ingrisch, 2013 from Singapore and Micrornebius malaya Tan & Nizam, 2013 from Bukit Fraser, Pahang. Despite of the overall similarities in habitus, the male phallic complex is vastly different. Within Singapore, two species were previously recorded: Micrornebius cylindricus Ingrisch, 2006 and M. kopisua . Three more species new to science are added here, increasing the number of species from Singapore to five. Given that numerous distinct species can be found within a small area, it is very likely that Micrornebius is more speciose than currently known.