Taxonomic study of species of tribe Aphonoidini Gorochov, 2008 (Orthoptera: Oecanthidae) based on ovipositor morphology in China

Abstract

The tribe Aphonoidini was established by Gorochov in 2008 and includes 18 genera. There are currently ten species of this tribe in China. Because female crickets of this tribe are relatively similar in external morphology and cannot be easily distinguished from one another, we have used the morphology of the ovipositor in this study with the objective of evaluate this value in the identification of the females. Here, we compare a total of five species of ovipositor in genera Aphonoides and Mistshenkoana of this tribe by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and VHX–6000 digital microscope, of which Mistshenkoana kongtumensis Gorochov, 1990 was first introduced to China. By observing the apical morphology and sensilla of the ovipositor of these five species, we made a pictorial key to species of Aphonoidini from China based on the end of the ventral valvulae and obtained five kinds of sensilla, among which Aphonoides curvto and M. kongtumensis had one more SB (sensilla basiconica) than the other three species. This work confirms, to some extent, that the ovipositor can be used as a feature of species classification.