Phylogeny of the grasshopper family Pyrgomorphidae (Caelifera, Orthoptera) based on morphology

Abstract

AbstractThe family Pyrgomorphidae (Orthoptera: Caelifera) is considered one of the most colourful grasshopper families, which contains about 500 species distributed worldwide. Commonly referred to as gaudy or bush grasshoppers, many pyrgomorphs are known to be aposematic and capable of sequestering plant secondary compounds. Several species are considered important agricultural pests, while some species are culturally important. Nevertheless, the phylogeny of this family has never been proposed using modern cladistic methods. In this study, we present a phylogenetic analysis of Pyrgomorphidae, based on 119 morphological characters with 269 character states, covering 28 out of 31 current recognized tribes. We recovered the monophyly of the family and one of the two currently recognized subfamilies, Orthacridinae. Pyrgomorphinae was recovered as paraphyletic. Based on the most parsimonious tree, we propose four main clades and discuss the biology and biogeography of members of these clades. This is the first step towards building a natural classification for Pyrgomorphidae, which is an excellent model system for studying the evolution of interesting traits such as wing development, warning coloration and chemical defence.