Poecilimon bosphoricus group (Orthoptera, Phaneropterinae): iteration of morpho-taxonomy by song characteristics

Abstract

More than 20 species were reported under the circum Black Sea lineage Poecilimon bosphoricus group (Orthoptera, Tet-tigonioidea, Phaneropterinae). The taxonomy of the group has for a long time been controversial; once these species weretransferred to Eupoecilimon and many new species have been described since the revision by Ramme (1933) or synonymshave been suggested/re-established. This study aims to test the classification of the group presently based on morpholog-ical characters by bioacoustic data. The following results were obtained or conclusions arrived. First, several qualitativemorphological characters previously used in descriptions/diagnoses of the species are variable and overlap between spe-cies. Those are the elevation and widening of pronotum in metazona, the emargination of caudal margin of pronotal discand the structure of male subgenital plate at caudal margin. Thus, still the male cercus, especially the orientation of den-ticles, is the most productive structure may allow more objective delimitation of species. As in qualitative morphology thegeneral morphometry seems uninformative for the taxonomy of the group. Second, male calling song and partly the num-ber of stridulatory pegs are more useful characters both for delimitation of species and describing their relationships. Es-pecially, the pattern of the syllable, the number of impulses per syllable and the duration of early part of syllable in speciesgroup allow us a more objective delimitation of the species and definition of relationships. Third, from the distributionand relationships of species, we suggested three radiation centres for the lineage: (1) Northwest Anatolia + Eastern Bal-kans, (2) Northeast Anatolia + Caucasus and (3) Crimea. Fourth, after evaluating morphological and song phenotypes we considered 21 species in P. bosphoricus group constituting three subgroups: (1) P. sureyanus and P. kocaki (+ P. athos),(2) P. turcicus + P. turciae and (3) P. bidens, P. bischoffi, P. bosphoricus, P. cervus, P. demirsoyi, P. geoktschajcus, P. hei-nrichi, P. istanbul, P. miramae, P. pliginskii, P. proximus, P. roseoviridis sp. n., P. scythicus, P. similis and P. tauricus (+ P.djakonovi). The following nomenclatural actions were made: (1) P. roseoviridis Chobanov & Kaya sp. n. described, (2)P. similis proximus Ünal, 2010 raised to species level as P. proximus stat. n., (3) P. naskrecki Ünal, 2001 syn.n. syn-onymised with P. demirsoyi Sevgili, 2001 (4) P. diversus Ünal, 2010 syn.n. and P. anatolicus Ramme 1933 syn.n. put insynonymy with P. sureyanus Uvarov, 1930, (5) P. oligacanthus Miram, 1938 syn.n. and P. tereckensis Stshelkanovtzev,1910 stat.rev. resynonymised with P. similis Retowski, 1889, (6) P. beybienkoi Tarbinsky, 1932 syn.n. and P. kusnezoviMiram, 1929 syn.n. synonymised with P. tauricus Retwoski, 1888, and (7) P. boldyrevi Miram, 1938 syn.n. synonymised with P. pliginskii Miram, 1929.