Unicorniella, Yong, 2019

Yong, Sheyla, 2019, Three new genera and four new species of katydids (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from Cuba and Hispaniola, Greater Antilles, Ecologica Montenegrina 20 (2019), pp. 222-256 : 235

Genus Unicorniella new genus

Figures 7–10 , 17 , 21 , 24 . Table III

Type species: Unicorniella hatueyi n. sp., by present designation.

Diagnosis. Body slender and size large for the subfamily (26–29 mm). Both sexes macropterous; tegmina lanceolate, sexually not dimorphic (size and shape similar in both sexes), clearly surpassing tip of abdomen (male) and ovipositor (female); hind wings fully developed. Head with tegument smooth, lacking any keels. Fastigium very large, very sharp and very slightly curved downwards, base of fastigium with a very large tooth, vertically separated by a deep notch from a large frontal tooth. Eyes small and spherical. Pronotum longer than wide; dorsal disk strongly projected, truncate; longitudinal sulcus inconspicuous. Legs very long, slender and ventrally armed with minute spines; genicular spines very long and sharp. Male cerci curved inwards and armed apically with two sclerotized and strongly incurved spines; female cerci unmodified, narrowly conical. Ovipositor long, slender, straight and entirely smooth.

Etymology. The generic epithet is an arbitrary combination of letters, which mixes the Spanish noun "Unicornio" with the Latin diminutive ending "- ella ". It is declared feminine in gender. Unicorns are fantastic creatures believed to live deep inside the remotest forests, thus, only seldom seen; the epithet alludes to both the habitat of this katydid and its sporadic findings.

Comparisons. Unicorniella n. gen. is very closely related to two other Copiphorini genera: Neoconocephalus Karny, 1907 and Pyrgocorypha .

The new genus can be separated from Neoconocephalus as follows: 1) Habitus slenderer. 2) Fastigium very long and sharp. 3) Genicular spines conspicuously larger. In Neoconocephalus , the habitus is generally stouter, the fastigium is short and blunt (the single exception being N. aduncus (Scudder, 1878) , which has it C-shaped), and the genicular spines are much shorter.

Last, Unicorniella n. gen. can be separated from Pyrgocorypha by: 1) Habitus slenderer. 2) Fastigium apically not hooked. 3) Ovipositor longer than abdomen. 4) Mirror of right tegmen longer than wide. In Pyrgocorypha , the habitus is generally stouter, the fastigium is apically hooked, the ovipositor is as long as abdomen, and the mirror of right tegmen is essentially circular.

Distribution. Monotypic genus, known only from the mountains of the neighboring Greater Antillean islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. In the former, it is scattered all across the main island, but in the latter, it is known from a single locality in southern Dominican Republic (fig. 24).

Figures

Figure 7. Adult male holotype of Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp., full-body views: a) dorsal; b) lateral; c) ventral. Scale bar in millimeters.

Figure 8. Adult male holotype (a–i) and adult female paratopotype (j) of Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp., close-up views: a) head and pronotum, dorsal; b) head and pronotum, lateral; c) head, frontal; d) stridulatory area, dorsal; e) stridulatory areas, left and right sides, dorsal; f) sternites; g) apex of abdomen, dorsal; h) apex of abdomen, ventral; i) apex of abdomen, posterior; j) apex of abdomen and ovipositor, lateral.

Figure 9. Juvenile males of Unicorniella n. gen., full-body lateral view: a) paratopotype; b) specimen from Sierra Prieta (Dominican Republic). Scale bar in millimeters.

Figure 10. Adults of Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp., from other collections: a) IES male from Nibujón; b) FZ female from Rangel.

Figure 17. Live habitus of Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp.: a) adult male holotype, green phase, in captivity; b) adult male from Pico San Juan, green phase, in natural habitat (low grass); c) adult female paratopotype, green phase, in natural habitat (fern frond); d) adult female from Pico San Juan, brown phase, in natural habitat (low grass), see anomalous fastigium; e) juvenile male paratopotype, green phase, in natural habitat (bush twig); f) subadult male paratopotype, brown phase, in natural habitat (thin liana). Photos b–d courtesy of Tomás M. Rodríguez-Cabrera.

Figure 21. Habitat of Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp.: a) Sierra de Rangel; b) Pico San Juan; c) La Gran Piedra; d) Sierra Prieta. Photos a, d courtesy of Rolando Teruel.

Figure 24. Geographical distribution of the genus Unicorniella n. gen. and its single species Unicorniella hatueyi n. gen., n. sp.: type locality (red symbol), additional localities (yellow symbols). Image frame = 500 x 220 km, inset = 20 x 13 km.