Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri (Reiche & Fairmaire, 1849)

Haggag, Asmaa A., 2016, First record of the genus Pycnodictya with its subspecies P. galinieri galinieri from Egypt (Orthoptera, Acrididae), ZooKeys 630, pp. 105-114 : 108-110

Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri (Reiche & Fairmaire, 1849) Figs 1-8 , 9-14

Oedipoda galinieri Reiche & Fairmaire, 1849: 432.

Humbe hyalodes Karsch, 1896: 265.

Humbe miniatipennis Karsch, 1896: 265.

Type specimen.

Unspecified male collected from Ethiopia deposited in Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle Paris, France (MNHN).

Material examined.

1♀, Halaib II in Gabal Elba (22°11'16"N, 36°22'14"E), 2003 [CUE, Efflatoun Bey Collection , Entomology Department, faculty of science, Cairo University, Egypt] .

Description.

The body of the female is robust, medium-sized, and brownish, with sparse hairs on pronotum, sternum, legs, and mouth parts. Head (Figs 1 , 9 ) rugose, prominent, and straight. Eyes rounded with obtuse rounded apex. Frons (Fig. 3 ) with rounded obtuse angle to fastigium of vertex. Frontal ridge shallowly sulcate with obtuse lateral carinulae, wide above ocellus, excurved between antennae then straight below ocellus, not reaching clypeus; surface coarsely punctured and wrinkled above ocellus. Fastigial foveolae shallow and oval. Fastigium of vertex wide, shallow with obtuse margins. Vertex broad and convex with low carinula between eyes. Antennae (Fig. 12 ) yellowish brown, filiform, with 27 flagellomers, shorter than head and pronotum together.

Pronotum (Figs 1 , 9 , 13 ) constricted in the posterior half of prozona, coarsely punctured and wrinkled especially in metazona; anterior margin dentate with slightly acute angle at median carina; third transverse sulcus sharp; metazona coarsely wrinkled with tubercles, its length slightly longer than prozona, posterior angle highly acute angular, median carina obtuse, distinct, crossed by third transverse sulcus only and raised in prozona. Lateral lobes (Figs 2 , 10 , 11 ) with three transverse sulci, with anterior and posterior margin straight, anterior and posterior lower angle obtusely rounded and lower margin distinctly convex from second sulcus to posterior margin. Mesosternal interspace (Fig. 4 ) about three times as broad as long and metasternal interspace about 3.25 times as broad as long.

Elytra (Fig. 9 ) wide, about 4.25 times as long as its maximum width, slightly narrowing toward obliquely truncate apex; opaque and with obtuse dark spots that do not form definite transverse bands, leaving the apical third transparent with brownish veins; second branch of medial vein with five branches apically; intercalary vein straight then raised apically, behind middle closer to cubital vein.

Wings (Fig. 9 ) approximately twice as long as its maximum width, with orange red basal half, surrounded by a dark, moderately narrow, transverse semicircular band that does not reach posterior margin, with short anterior projection toward base; veins darkened in transparent apical part.

Hind femora (Figs 5 , 10 ) thick, their lengths approx. 3.25 times their maximum widths; upper margins distinctly serrate and lower marginal areas expanded with irregular edges; upper and lower external carinulae with dark dots; inner sides blackish below upper carina and with dark crest at knee.

Hind tibiae (Fig. 14 ) blackish violet except for yellowish ring in basal third and blackish violet condyle internally; shorter than femora with ten spines on outer, eleven on inner side.

Abdominal extremity (Figs 6 , 7 , 8 ) with ovipositor valves robust, short with curved apex.

The male is noted to be similar to the female but smaller in size; hind wings bright orange red; hind tibiae with a less distinct pale basal ring ( Ingrisch 1999).

Measurements.

(Table 1 ).

Distribution.

Afrotropical species distributed along the Indian Ocean in the eastern half of the African continent from Sudan in the north to South Africa ( Johnston 1956, 1968; Dirsh 1965; Eades et al. 2016), expanding north eastwards to the south of the Arabian Peninsula to Yemen ( Ingrisch 1999) and Oman ( Popov 1980), and reaching, with the new record presented here, the southern corner of Egypt at the Red Sea (Figs 15 , 16 ).

Figures

Figure 15. Map of the known country records of Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri.

Figure 16. Map of Egypt showing the local distribution of Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri.

Figures 1 - 8. ♀ Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri. 1 dorsal view of head and pronotum 2 lateral view of head and pronotum 3 anterior view of head 4 ventral view of meso- and metasternum 5 external side of hind femur 6 dorsal view of abdominal apex 7 ventral view of abdominal apex 8 lateral view of abdominal apex.

Figures 9 - 14. Digital photos of female Pycnodictya galinieri galinieri 9 dorsal view 10 lateral view 11 lateral view of head & pronotum 12 antenna 13 dorsal view of pronotum 14 dorsal view of base of hind tibia.