Nophtha Kasalo & Skejo, 2025

Damien, Niko Kasalo, Laure, Damien Brouste, Christophe, Laure Desutter-Grandcolas, Domagoj, Christophe Hervé, Josip, Domagoj Bogić & Skejo, Josip, 2025, Atlas of New Caledonian Tetrigidae with preliminary suprageneric classification of Batrachideinae, Zoosystema 47 (18), pp. 327-397 : 384-387

Genus Nophtha Kasalo & Skejo , n. gen.

urn:lsid:zoobank.org:act:E344E3F0-DF43-4978-9ADC-2A57606F2C1A

TYPE SPECIES. — Nophtha proditor Kasalo & Skejo , n. sp.

COMPOSITION. — Monotypic, including only N. proditor Kasalo & Skejo , n. sp.

DISTRIBUTION. — Known only from New Caledonia.

ETYMOLOGY. — Named after Nophtha , the titular character of Michael Cisco’s novel “The Traitor”, since it betrayed our understanding of Tetrigidae taxonomy and morphology. The name is of masculine gender.

DIAGNOSIS. — Small species (female around 7 mm long). Pronotum strongly bulging, spherical, rough, interspersed with small circular “holes”, covered in hair-like structures. First segment of anterior tarsus longer than second. First segment of anterior and middle tarsus laterally expanded.

DESCRIPTION

Frontal costa bifurcation in ventral quarter of eye height. Scutellum very wide, widening ventrad. Paired ocelli at level of ventral margin of eyes. Antennal grooves below ventral margin of eyes. Antennae filiform, composed of 13 visible segments. Vertex more than two times wider than eye in frontal view. In anterior view, upper half of vertex above level of upper margin of eyes; rounded. In dorsal view, vertex slightly narrowing anteriorly, vaguely triangular; only frontal costa reaching anterior margin of eyes. Medial carina visible in anterior third between eyes. Lateral carinae U-shaped, visible in anterior half between eyes. Anterior margin of pronotum rounded. Prozonal carinae indistinct. Entire pronotum swollen in sphere-like shape, interspersed with circular indentations. Median carina distinct throughout its length, wavy. Lateral lobes contiguous with body, small, rectangular. Ventral sinus in shape of rectangular incision. Tegminal sinus absent. Infrascapular area very wide above middle femur, narrowing slightly towards pronotal apex. Humeral angles blunt. Posthumeral spots present.

Pronotal apex wide, bilobate. Tegmina and wings absent. Anterior femur serrated but without large protrusions; several small teeth on ventral margin. Anterior tibia expanded throughout its length. First segment of anterior tarsus longer than second segment (including claws), pulvilli indistinct. Middle femur serrated; dorsal margin wavy, ventral margin with several small teeth. Middle tibia expanded throughout its length. Hind femur robust with lappets on ventral and dorsal margins; large antegenicular, small genicular tooth. Hind tibia straight and smooth with small teeth in distal two thirds. First tarsal segment longer than third. Pulvilli equally long, sharp.

REMARK

The peculiarities noted in the diagnosis section, namely the long and expanded first tarsal segment of the anterior and middle legs and the spherical pronotum interspersed with holes and hairs have not been reported in this combination in any other species. Similar holes, which are actually thinnings in the pronotal surface, have been observed in the genus Miriatroides Zheng & Jiang, 2002 ( Storozhenko et al. 2023). Pronotum covered in hairs has been observed in Potua ( Tumbrinck 2014a) . The origin and function of these properties are unknown. These characters are not present in the other members of Nophthini Kasalo & Skejo , n. tribe., making this genus a real evolutionary mystery.