Journal of Threatened
Taxa | www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 February 2022 | 14(2): 20643–20647
ISSN 0974-7907
(Online) | ISSN 0974-7893 (Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7427.14.2.20643–20647
#7427 | Received 12
May 2021 | Final received 19 October 2021 | Finally accepted 27 January 2022
First record and description of
female Onomarchus leuconotus
(Serville, 1838) (Insect: Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from peninsular India
Sunil M. Gaikwad 1,
Yogesh J. Koli 2 & Gopal A. Raut
3
1 Department of Zoology, Shivaji University, Kolhapur, Maharashtra 416004, India.
2 Department of Zoology, Sant Rawool Maharaj College, Kudal,
Maharashtra 416520, India.
3 Department of Zoology, Radhabai Kale Mahila Mahavidyala, Ahmednagar, Maharashtra 414001, India.
1 smg_zoo@unishivaji.ac.in
(corresponding author), 2 dryjkoli@gmail.com, 3 rautgopal189@gmail.com
Editor: R.M. Sharma,
Zoological Survey of India, Pune, India. Date
of publication: 26 February 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Gaikwad, S.M., Y.J. Koli & G.A. Raut (2022). First record and
description of female Onomarchus leuconotus (Serville, 1838)
(Insect: Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae) from peninsular
India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 14(2): 20643–20647. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.7427.14.2.20643-20647
Copyright: © Gaikwad et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
Funding: Shivaji University, Kolhapur.
Competing interests: The authors
declare no competing interests.
Acknowledgements: Authors are grateful to head,
Department of Zoology, Shivaji University Kolhapur
for providing necessary facilities; Dr. Sigfrid Ingrisch for the
identification.
Abstract: The members of family Tettigoniidae, commonly called katydids, generally exhibit
mimicry and camouflage with shapes and colours
similar to leaves. The genus Onomarchus Stal is mainly distributed in temperate and tropical
Asia, and was earlier reported from Assam and West Bengal in India. The species
Onomarchus leuconotus
(Serville, 1838) is reported here for the first
time in peninsular India from the Western Ghats (Chandoli
National Park, Kolhapur, Maharashtra). This record extends the known
geographical range of this species by about 1630 km. As its holotype is not
described from India, the female of O. leuconotus is
described here via detailed diagnostic characters, colour
photographs and illustrations.
Keywords:
Distribution, female description, katydid, leuconotus,
Phaneropterinae.
During a survey of Orthoptera
from the Western Ghats area, we came across a green Tettigonid at Chandoli National Park of Kolhapur district, and identified
it as Onomarchus leuconotus,
not previously reported from peninsular India.
The genus Onomarchus
Stal, 1874 is spread across temperate and tropical
Asia, and so far represented by five species (http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org,
accessed on 7 May 2021). From India, Shishodia et al.
(2010) listed Onomarchus bisulacatus from Mizoram, and Onomarchus
leuconotus from Assam and West Bengal.
Subsequently, Srinivasan and Prabakar (2012) reported Onomarchus
uninotatus from Arunachal Pradesh. Serville (1838) described the male of O. leuconotus, while Barman (1993) provided minimum
information about the diagnosis of this species and mentioned its locality as
West Bengal (Kolkata) and Assam of India, as did Shishodia
et al. (2010) who made a checklist without diagnosis and deposition records.
Our report is the first record for the Western Ghats and peninsular India. Here
we describe female O. leuconotus by giving
detailed diagnostic characters, colour photographs
and illustrations.
Materials and Methods
Material examined: ZSUK.E.TT.07,
1 female, 15.xi.2012, Ukhalu, Chandoli
National Park, Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India (Figure 1), 17.1260N and
73.8600E, 844 m, coll. Y.J. Koli,
deposited in Department of Zoology, Shivaji
University, Kolhapur. The specimen was studied under a Nikon stereozoom (SMZ 800) microscope and photographed using a
Canon 550D camera with 100 mm lens. Measurements were done with digital Vernier
calipers. The specimen was identified as O. leuconotus
by using the original description (translated from French to English) of Serville (1838), De Jong (1939), Barman (1993), and images
of the type specimen and keys on the website Orthoptera Species File
(http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org). Dr. Sigfrid Ingrisch from The Alexander Koening
Zoological Research Museum in Germany confirmed the identification based on
images of the specimen.
Results
Description Female
(Image 1 & 2):
Measurements (in mm): body
length 82; pronotum 11; tegmen 75 & width 26; fore femur length 10, mid
femur 12, hind femur 25, hind tibia 24; ovipositor length 30 & width 7 mm.
Diagnostics
Head: Lateral margins, starting
from the lower margin of the eyes and antennal socket downwards along the genae, broadly yellowish-white; labrum and mandibular base
whitish (Image 1A, E).
Pronotum: short, disc white, hind
margin acutely angular, centrally one long and one slightly short transverse
groove running downwards and short vertical groove intersect posterior
transverse suture vertically (Image 2A).
Meso and Metasternum:
mesosternum somewhat quadrate, metasternum subquadrate narrows
posteriorly; two large pits are situated nearly in the central area in both meso and metasterna and one very
fine additional pit found near mesosternal caudal
margin medially; pits in the metasternum joined by
nearly straight grooves, mesosternal lateral pits
joined to the medial pit by oblique grooves (Image 2B).
Legs: yellowish, fairly short;
fore and mid femur barely dented below; fore femur bearing three spines on
internal carina and 6 spines on external carina; mid femur bearing five spines
on external carina and seven spines on internal carina; hind femur bearing five
strong spines, broad at the base and hooked at tip and four small spines on
external carina and 10 small spines on internal carina; hind tibia armed with
five spines on the upper side and ventrally seven pairs of moderate spines, 4th
pair separated.
Forewing: slightly leathery,
undulating anteriorly, large, more than twice the length of the body (Image
1A). Venation (Image 2C): The costa (C) fine, unbranched, long,
runs along the anterior margin; subcosta (Sc),
branched into anterior short subcostal (Sc1) and long posterior subcostal
(Sc2); the radius (R), most prominent, runs 2/3 distance and branched into
anterior radius (R1) and posterior radius (R2); median (M) long runs parallel
to radius for a short distance and then separates, reaching to the apical
region; cubitus (Cu) forks at the base into long cubitus 1 (Cu1) and short
cubitus 2 (Cu2), continues with a hind margin of tegmen; anals
short, unbranched, 4 in number (A1, A2, A3, and A4).
Hindwing: large, hyaline,
protruding beyond the tegmina at rest (Image 1A).
Abdomen: Last abdominal tergite
short, transverse, subfused with epiproct;
epiproct semicircular with shallow Y shaped furrow;
cerci cylindrical, narrower towards the apex, sinuately
curved outside before apex, apex obtuse dark coloured
with a minute spinule; subgenital
plate roughly triangular with basal angles rounded, basal half portion strongly
raised in the midline, apical half portion with fine medial furrow, apex subtruncate, crenulated and obtusely projecting short
lateral lobes (Image 1C,D); ovipositor large about four times longer than
broad, sabre like, dorsal valves with seven oblique furrows at apex, 2/3
ventral valve and 1/3 dorsal valve dark black (Image 1B).
Discussion
This species is distributed in
India, Malaysia, Sumatra, Papua New Guinea, Java, China, Maluk,
Indo-China, and Vietnam (http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org, accessed on 30
April 2021). This is the first illustrated report of this species from Western
India, and the present record extends its known geographical range from Kolkata
to western India, a distance of about 1,630 km by air (Figure 1).
The holotype of Onomarchus leuconotus is
from Java, and the type specimen of this species is in the Natural History
Museum, London. Serville originally described the O.
leuconotus (male) in 1838 as Pseudophyllus
leuconotus in French. The same species was later
described with three synonyms: O. albisellatus (Walker
1870), O. latipennis (Pictet
& Saussure 1892) and O. nobilis (Brunner
1895), none described from India.
However, Barman (1993) recorded O. leuconotus
from India with scant diagnostics.
According to the original
description by Serville (1838), elaborative
diagnostics of de Jong (1939), images and keys on http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org,
the specimen recorded from Chandoli National Park is
treated here as O. leuconotus. The whitish genae, part of mouth and labrum; pronotal
colour and shape; structure of meso-
and metasternum; hind tibiae with strong 5 spines
dorsally; broad tegmina and ovipositor in the present specimen are identical
with O. leuconotus.
de Jong (1939) mentioned
important characters for identifying the three species of Serville.
If hind tibia has five strong thorns on the dorso-internal
margin, pronotum dorsally white, broad tegmen and ovipositor: O. leuconotus;
if seven strong thorns on the dorso-internal margin
of hind tibia, a white spot near the base of the tegmen and ovipositor five
times as long as broad: O. uninotus and if six
small thorns on hind and lot of white spots on tegmen and ovipositor is about
six times longer than its thickness: O. cretaceus.
Since the characters suggested for O. uninotus
and O. cretaceus, are not found in our
specimen and since our specimen contained the characters mentioned for O. leuconotus by de Jong (1939), our specimen proves to be
O. leuconotus. Considering the thorns on the
feet, it appears that only the large spines on the hind tibia are counted,
mainly for O. leuconotus. However, while
describing our specimen, it has been found that in addition to large thorns,
many small and blunt thorns are also found on femur and tibiae. It seems that
the counting of the small spines has not been given importance thus information
on this count is given here. Moreover, he mentioned additional character
for O. leuconotus that narrow strip of little
pits running from the lower margin of the eyes downwards along the genae, which is not found in the other species and the
shape of the meso- and metasternum
by line drawings. The characters and line drawings of meso-
and meta-sternum given by de Jong (1939) are clear in our specimen. In
addition, as per the revision of the Pseudophyllinae
by Beier (1954), our specimen agrees best with O. leuconotus (Serville
1838). The smooth pronotum, the sinuate shape of the dorsal margin of the
tegmen and its venation, and the white band at the genae
agree with that species.
The pronotum has only one
transverse groove in the anterior half of the disc, and the hind margin is
acutely angular (de Jong 1939). The line drawing of pronotum on the website of
Orthoptera species File (http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org) shows one
transverse and one vertical groove, which intersect horizontal one. However,
the pronotum of the specimen under study is having an additional short
transverse groove. This is probably because our specimen is female, it may have
another groove in it, or it may not have been noticed, as the anterior
transverse groove is indistinguishable.
For
figure & images - - click here
References
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