Chirista compta (Walker, 1870)

Popov †, George B., Fishpool, Lincoln D. C. & Rowell, C. Hugh F., 2019, A review of the Acridinae s. str. (Orthoptera: Acridoidea: Acrididae) of eastern Africa with taxonomic changes and description of new taxa, Journal of Orthoptera Research 28 (2), pp. 37-105 : 62

Chirista compta (Walker, 1870) Figs 123, 124

Gymnobothrus varians Karsch, 1891 (Barombi) (syn. I. Bolívar 1909).

Chirista varians Karsch, 1893:76 (syn. I. Bolívar 1909).

Duronia virgula I. Bolívar, 1890 (Ashanti) (syn. I. Bolívar 1909).

Duronia pegasus Rehn, 1914 (D.R. CONGO) (syn. Uvarov 1953).

Description.

-Moderately slender. Size (in mm): total length: males 14.5-17.0, females 18.0-21.0. Integument finely rugose and dotted. Antennae filiform, in males about as long as combined length of head and pronotum; in females somewhat shorter. Frontal ridge weakly sulcate, margins slightly divergent downwards. Fastigium of vertex moderately concave, narrowly parabolic with sharp margins; foveolae absent. Pronotum weakly selliform, median carina linear; lateral carinae more obtuse, strongly incurved in prozona, divergent in metazona. Latter with obtuse-angular hind margin and as long as, or slightly longer than, prozona (Fig. 123). Tegmina and wings fully developed, tegmina relatively narrow, intercalary vein weak or absent. Epiphallus with rather short lophi (Fig. 124). General coloration variable, particularly in females, in shades of green and/or brown, paler dorsally and ventrally; in brown individuals usually a dark brownish lateral stripe of varying width extending backwards from antennal pits across upper half of lateral pronotal lobes, but interrupted by a conspicuous oblique clear stripe on mesothorax; in green variants this band is narrowly confined to upper edge of lateral pronotal lobes. Darker blackish-brown color forms could be fire-melanic. Hind wings hyaline, or slightly infumate.

Distribution.

-Widespread from western Africa to D.R. CONGO and ANGOLA, to UGANDA (Bwamba, Jinja, Mabira forest, Kampala, Lake George, Buruli, Samburu falls) and ETHIOPIA (Dembi Forest - Felix and Massa 2016). In Uganda one of the most common forest-edge species.