Short-winged Species Research Articles

A new short-winged species of the genus Stenchaetothrips Bagnall, 1926 (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from Central Yakutia (Siberia)

A new short-winged species of the genus Stenchaetothrips Bagnall, 1926 (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) from Central Yakutia (Siberia)

An interesting new species of Conocephalus (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae) from Argentina

Conocephalus cinnamonifrons sp. nov. is distinguished by a cinnamon brown head and a distinctly upcurved ovipositor from South American congeners with usually green heads and practically straight ovipositors. The short-winged species lives in wetlands near the coast of the Río de la Plata, and has also been recorded from Entre Ríos Province. The calling song of the male shows a distinctive pattern of long syllable trains alternating with short sequences of a few isolated syllables, quite different to the songs of the syntopically occurring C. doryphorus and C. longipes. Some ecological aspects are briefly discussed.

New record of a Poecilimon species (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Phaneropterinae; Barbitistini) from China.

Although in "Fauna Sinica Insecta" 247 species of Phaneropterinae are recorded for China, there is not a single record of a species from the tribe Barbitistini. Herein, we newly record a small-sized and short-winged species of this tribe belonging to the genus Poecilimon (Fischer, 1853). We identified the species as Poecilimon intermedius (Fieber, 1853) which was collected in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous region, China. The records of the interesting species extend its distributional range in Asia. Detailed citations, description and necessary illustrations are provided.

Multiple origin of flightlessness in Phaneropterinae bushcrickets and redefinition of the tribus Odonturini (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea: Phaneropteridae)

The possession of wings and ability to fly are a unifying character of higher insects, but secondary loss of wings is widespread. Within the bushcrickets, the subfamily Phaneropterinae (Orthoptera: Tettigonioidea) comprises more than 2000 predominantly long-winged species in the tropics. However, the roughly 300 European representatives are mainly short-winged. The systematics of these radiations have been unclear, leading to their unreliable formal treatment, which has hindered analysis of the evolutionary patterns of flight loss. A molecular phylogeny is presented for 42 short-winged species and members of all European long-winged genera based on the combined data from three nuclear gene sequences (18S, H3, ITS2). We found four phylogenetic lineages: (i) the first included the short-wing species of the genus Odontura; (ii) a further branch is represented by the South-American short-winged Cohnia andeana; (iii) an assemblage of long-wing taxa with a deep branching pattern includes the members of the tribes Acrometopini, Ducetiini, Phaneropterini, and Tylopsidini; (iv) a large group contained all short-winged taxa of the tribe Barbitistini. Phaneropterinae flightlessness originated twice in the Western Palaearctic, with a number of mainly allo- and parapatrically distributed species of the Barbistini in Southeastern Europe, and the Middle East and a limited number of Odontura species in Northern Africa and Southwestern Europe. Both short-winged lineages are well separated, which makes it necessary to restrict the tribe Odonturini to the West-Palaearctic genus Odontura. Other flightless genera previously included in the Odonturini are placed as incertae sedis until their phylogenetic position can be established.

Revision of the leafhopper genus Soractellus Evans (Cicadellidae: Deltocephalinae) with description of a new species from Pakistan.

The leafhopper genus Soractellus Evans, 1966 is reviewed and a new short-winged species, Soractellus lalianensis sp. nov. from Pakistan, is described and illustrated. A key to distinguish all species in this genus is given.

Dispersal potential impacts size clines of grasshoppers across an elevation gradient

Body size is a life history trait that determines the reproductive success of a variety of organisms. Changes in body size may have a genetic component when persistent conditions such as season length and climate select for individuals of an optimal body size and an environmental component when it is influenced on an ecological scale by factors such as weather, food availability, or maternal effects. Along elevational gradients that experience seasonality, insects commonly become smaller with increases in elevation. In this study we test the hypothesis that dispersal potential, an indicator of gene flow, impacts the type of size clines exhibited by insects along elevational gradients and that these differences in local adaptation should lead to predictable changes in their reproductive potential and output. Using two short winged grasshopper species, Aeropedellus clavatus and Melanoplus boulderensis, and two long winged species, Camnula pellucida and Melanoplus sanguinipes, we showed that species with low dispersal potential are associated with significant declines in body size with increases in elevation while species with high dispersal potential displayed no size clines. Consistent with short winged species being more locally adapted, we show that reproductive potential, as measured by the proportion of ovarioles that become functional, do not differ among populations of short winged species, but decline with elevation in the long winged species. While our study failed to show that dispersal potential impacts reproductive output in a consistent and predictable manner (as measured by clutch and egg sizes), we address the possibility that clutch size may not reflect changes in total reproductive output and that changes in egg size may be a plastic trait. We concluded that studies exploring the evolution of body size, the reproductive capacity and species level responses to environmental change should note the importance of dispersal potential in influencing these patterns.

Comparison of the mating behaviour of a bush cricket in the laboratory and the field: Calling activity and mating frequency of a long-winged species, Phaneroptera falcata (Ensifera: Tettigoniidae)

Bush crickets are a model group for testing hypotheses in sexual selection, but much of the information is based on labora - tory observations on wingless or short-winged species, which may restrict their generality. Here we describe aspects of the mating be- haviour of the long-winged e uropean bush cricket Phaneroptera falcata (Poda, 1761). Both in the laboratory and the field, diel calling followed a normal, though slightly left-skewed distribution, peaking about three hours after sunset or lights-off. u nder bright green- house conditions, when the light was suddenly switched off, calling occurred only after the onset of darkness. Decreasing light intensity may trigger the start of calling activity. i n the field, calling decreased from midnight onwards, which may be related to a decrease in temperature. The sequence of events during copulation was identical in the laboratory and the field. h owever, in two of 14 copulations documented in the field, a pre-copulatory behaviour was observed that resembled the putative removal and ingestion of rival sperm. Previous suggestions that P. falcata (Poda) is monogamous are rejected on the basis of both laboratory and field results. i n the labora- tory males and females mated every 2.3 and 3.6 days, respectively. We introduce a simple way to calculate the average frequency of mating in the field, based on the observation that at any one time 3% of all the individuals are recorded mating and copulation lasts 15 min. We estimate that on average P. falcata (Poda) mates once per day. More generally, our results show it is important for evolutionary conclusions to measure behaviourial data in the field.

A review of encyrtid wasps of the genus Anicetus Howard, 1896 (Hymenoptera, Chalcidoidea, Encyrtidae) of the new world, Hawaiian Islands, and Australia with description of new species from Mexico

The review contains a characteristic (with diagnosis) of the genus Anicetus Howard, 1896, a key to the females of the 12 species known from the New World, the Hawaiian Islands, and Australia, and a synopsis of the species with data on their distribution, hosts, biology, ecesis, and use in biological control of injurious coccids. Two new species are described from Mexico: Anicetus myartsevae sp. n. and A. villarreali sp. n. Anicetus carolinensis J. Meyer, 2001 from the USA is excluded from the genus and transferred to Homosemion Annecke, 1967. A new combination is established: Anicetus argentinus (Fidalgo, 1979), comb. n. from Paraceraptrocerus Girault, 1920, which is a synonym of Anicetus. The paper is based on the author’s work in the insect depositories of the USA (Washington, San Francisco, and Riverside), Mexico (Ciudad Victoria), and Russia (St. Petersburg). Anicetus myartsevae sp. n. is compared with the Mexican A. primus (Howard, 1898), from which it differs in the antennal scape half as long dorsally as at base (as long as that in A. primus), the legs more or less extensively dark (mainly yellow in A. primus), and the face with a dark transverse stripe (without stripe in A. primus). Anicetus villarrieli sp. n. is a short-winged species.