Abstract
The genus Gonatoxia Karsch, which was synonymized with Dapanera Karsch by Massa (2015), is re-established. Data on habitat, biology, ecology, the acoustics and on chromosomes are provided as well as a key to the species. The male of Gonatoxiaimmaculata Karsch and the female of Gonatoxiamaculata Karsch are described. Gonatoxiafurcatasp. n. from the Udzungwa Mountains of Tanzania and Gonatoxiahellerisp. n. inhabiting coastal and lowland wet forest are newly described. All species have calling songs consisting of very short, resonant syllables, produced in species specific intervals, and with peak carrier frequencies between 13 and 24 kHz. In respect to chromosome numbers Gonatoxia species showed extreme differences (from 29 to 7) suggesting rapid evolutionary changes. Gonatoxiahellerisp. n. so far is the tettigoniid species with the lowest number of chromosomes at present. Gonatoxia species may be used as bioindicators, their presence suggesting valuable habitats that are vanishing rapidly in East Africa.
Highlights
Lowland and coastal forests in East Africa are diminishing rapidly their importance as hotspots of biodiversity and endemism are acknowledged (Burgess and Clarke 2000; Burgess et al 2007)
Since only data for the holotype male of G. maculata are available at present, we provide more measurement data
Four species of Gonatoxia are known at present
Summary
Lowland and coastal forests in East Africa are diminishing rapidly their importance as hotspots of biodiversity and endemism are acknowledged (Burgess and Clarke 2000; Burgess et al 2007). Until recently species of the genus Gonatoxia were poorly collected and little or no data were available on their biology, habitat or chromosomes. Karsch (1889) erected the genus Gonatoxia and described two species on two specimens, G. immaculata on a female from the Usambara Mountains, and G. maculata on a male from Somalia. In naming the species he referred to the maculae on the tegmina, present in the male of G. maculata, absent in the female G. immaculata. For G. maculata a larger distribution area is suggested since the few known specimens were collected from Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania. When screening savanna habitats around Kilimanjaro at night larger numbers of G. maculata specimens could be collected in the past couple of years. When focusing on Tanzanian coastal and lowland wet forests specimens of G. immaculata were found. G. furcata sp. n. and G. helleri sp. n. are newly described and data on morphology, ecology, acoustics and chromosomes provided
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