Metioche japonica (Ichikawa, 2001)

Mal, Jhabar, Nagar, Rajendra & Swaminathan, R., 2014, Record of Natula matsuurai Sugimoto (Orthoptera: Gryllidae: Trigonidiinae) and other sword-tailed crickets from India, Zootaxa 3760 (3), pp. 458-462 : 461

Metioche japonica (Ichikawa, 2001)

1861. Trigonidium vittaticolle Stal, Eugenies Resa. Ins., 317.

1925. Metioche vittaticollis Chopard, Ark. Zool., 18 (A), No. 6, 32. Chopard, 1931, Bull. Raffles Mus., No. 6, 136

Description of species. body coloration dark shining black with bright yellow appendages looks like small colepteroids. Wing venation similar in both sexes [Plate IV].

Male. Dark black, eyes large, widely separated; inner margin of eyes more brightly rimed; fastigium of vertex as wide as horizontal diameter of antennal sockets; scape and pedicel dark black, flagellum bright; apical segment of maxillary palpus black, hatched shaped. Pronotum anterior and posterior margins truncate; a median longitudinal groove present on half of front. Tagmina dark shining black, convex on top; macropterous, slightly exceeding abdominal end, apex rather pointedly projected; stridulatory absent; lateral field differ than lateral lobe of pronotum. Hind wings absent. Fore tibia without tympanum. Middle tarsomeres smaller and darkish. Hind tibia with three pairs of dorsal spine on both side posteriorly; hind basi-tarsus longer than combined length of remaining two tarsomeres circus yellowish, as long as middle femur. Subgenital plate trapezoidal. Epiphalls with wide dorsal plate, triangularly incised on the middle of hind margin; hind lateral lophi dentate, its apex more projected two figure shaped.

Female. tegminal venation similar with male, but rather hyaline, less dark than male circus as long as ovipositor. Sub-genital plate roundly triangular, its hind margin hardly notched at middle apex. Ovipositor strongly up-curved, half as long as hind femur; 2/3rd area from base rather widened and bumpy; dorsal valves weekly serrated apically.

Material examined (70 specimens). Rajasthan: 1♂ 1♀ Vallabhnagar 14.ix.2013, 1♀ Chittorgarh 7.i.2013, 3♂ Anta ii.2013, 1 ♂ Sangaria 21.i.2013, 4♂ Pali 4.xi.2007, 3♂ 2♀ Banswara 16.v.2013, 1♂ 2♀ Rajasamand 28.x.2012, 2♂ 1♀Bhilwara 21.ii.2008, 11♂ 9♀ Udaipur 2007–2013; Madhya Pradesh: 1♂ 1♀ Mandsaur xi.2012; Gujarat: 1♀ Navsari 16.ii.2008, 2♂ 2♀ Anand 27.vii.2013; Maharashtra: 2♂ 6♀ Akola 7.x.2013; Tamil Nadu: 1♂ 6♀ Coimbatore 22.v.2012; Meghgalya: 2♂ 2♀ West Khasi Hills 4.vi.2013, 1♂ 1♀ Upper Shilong 3.vi.2013.

Distribution. India and S.E. Asia.