Hedotettix punctatus, Hancockand

Skejo, Josip & Gupta, Sunil Kumar, 2015, On the specific status of Hedotettix cristatus Karny, 1915 (Tetrigidae: Tetriginae), Zootaxa 4018 (4), pp. 584-592 : 587

Comparison of H. punctatus Hancockand H. cristatus Karny

Here we present Karny's (1915) original description of H. cristatus with English translation.

Original (Latin). Fusco-cinereus; pronoti discus utrinque macula magna rhomboidali nigra ornatus. Vertex oculo distinote latior, carina longitudinali mediana instructus; costa frontalis inter antennas sulcata, a latere visa sinuata. Pronotum acute cristatum, compressum, altitudine vix dimidio longius; marginibus antico et postico acute angulatis, apicem abdominis haud obtegens. Elytra alaeque disticte reticulata, sed rudimentaris; elytra apice subacuminata; alae parum longiores, apice acutae. Femora omnia brevia, intermedia anticis vix latiora. Tarsorum articulus primus tertio dimidio fere longior. Pulvillis 3 subaeque longis, apice subacuminatis instructus.

English translation. [Body color] brownish-gray; pronotal discus ornamented with a large black rhomboideal spot on both sides. Vertex distinctly broader than a [compound] eye, median carina [of vertex] present; frontal costa furrowed between the antennae, in lateral view curved. Pronotum strongly crested, compressed, high almost as half of [its] length; anterior and posterior margins acutely angular, not covering the apex of abdomen. Tegmenula (= tegmina, elytra, fore wings) and alae (hind wings) distinctly reticulated, but rudimentary; apex of fore wings subacuminate (= weakly pointed); hind wings a little longer than fore wings, their apices acute. All the femora short, the mid ones a little more widened. First tarsal article long almost twice as the third. Three pulvilli subequal in length, bearing subacute apices.

From the original descriptions, not a lot of valuable diagnostic characters can be extracted. The first character that is of value in comparison with other Hedotettix species is the width of vertex (noted in the original descripton vertex oculo distinote latior), distinctly wider than a compound eye. The second valuable character is the morphology of femora, which are short (femora omnia brevia).

Wagan & Kevan (1992) synonymized H. cristatus with H. punctatus and they based their conclusion on the variability of pronotal morphology of H. punctatus , without a detailed examination of other morphological characters usually used in Tetrigidae (especially Tetriginae ) systematics. These are: (i) morphology of antennae, (ii) position of antennal grooves, (iii) morphology of frontal costa and (iv) scutellum, (v) vertex morphometrics and (vi, vii, viii) length/ width ratios of femora. We will discuss below all of the mentioned features, and compare their characteristics and variability.