Bothromogoplistes, Gorochov, 2020

Gorochov, A. V., 2020, New subtribes of Arachnocephalini (Orthoptera: Mogoplistidae) and a new genus and species of this tribe from South Africa, Zoosystematica Rossica (China) 29 (2), pp. 347-352 : 349

Genus Bothromogoplistes gen. nov.

Type species Bothromogoplistes paraproctalis sp. nov.

Diagnosis. Body very small, without tympana and apterous in male ( Figs 1, 2). Head somewhat dorsoventrally depressed, with rather small and almost triangular eyes lacking facets only in small upper part, without ocelli, with large and very convex clypeus having space between antennal cavities approximately 3 times as wide as scape, and with moderately long and thin maxillary palpi (their subapical segment almost as long as clypeal width, and apical and third segments more or less equal in length but slightly shorter than subapical one; Figs 1, 3). Pronotum semitubular, somewhat longer than wide, with anterior edge slightly convex, with posterior edge barely concave, and with lateral lobes rather high as well as having very obtusely angular ventral edges and almost vertical anterior and posterior edges ( Figs 1, 2). Legs moderately long and thin, with hind leg having femur distinctly longer than tibia ( Fig. 4), and with long and narrow tarsi lacking any widened parts or lobules ( Figs 1, 4). Abdominal apex slightly widened in dorsal view and with tergites lacking large lobes or projections; anal plate rather large, directed mainly downwards, and with a pair of longitudinal stripes consisting of short but strong setae ( Figs 8, 9); paraprocts widely separated from each other, very large and in shape of characteristic hooks having large distal lamellar lobes directed medially ( Figs 8–10); genital plate rather short but with distal part having narrow median lobule ( Fig. 9–11); genitalia with membranous dorsal fold having very long and thin sclerotised rachis inside membranous invagination near apex of this fold (this rachis forming a few irregular loops; Figs 6, 7).

Included species. Only type species.

Comparison. The new genus is more or less similar to the other genera of this subtribe in its general appearance. However, it differs from the widely distributed genus Cycloptiloides (with several species in America, Africa, Asia and nearest islands, some of which are probably synanthropic) in an apterous male body, the male pronotum lacking a hind lobe covering the tegmina in Cycloptoloides, the absence of tympana, the male paraprocts with specialised hook-like processes widely separated from each other and having the distal parts lamellar and directed medially, the male genital plate with a narrower posteromedian lobule, and the male genitalia without sclerites on the dorsal fold but with a sclerotised rachis forming more than one loop. From the African genus Eucycloptilum lacking any hind pronotal lobe, wings and tympana as well as with unknown male genitalia, the new genus is distinguished by a smaller eye portion without facets and the same characters of the male abdominal apex (i.e., specialised paraprocts and genital plate). It should be added that E. parvum Chopard, 1961 described in Eucycloptilum from a single female ( Angola) but having a small inner tympanum as well as a simple (normal) abdominal apex ( Chopard, 1961: fig. 63) must be evidently transferred to the genus Cycloptiloides ( C. parvus comb. nov.), because all the true females of Eucycloptilum lack tympana and have the seventh abdominal tergite with a pair of posterolateral lobules partly covering the base of the genital plate from below ( Chopard, 1935: figs 6, 8).

Etymology. This new generic name originates from the old generic name Mogoplistes with the Latinised Greek prefix “bothro-“ (connected with burrow) due to the discovery of the type species of this genus in a burrow.