Hyperyboellini 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 : 330

Tribe Hyperyboellini Kasalo & Skejo , n. tribe

TYPE GENUS. — Hyperyboella Günther, 1938 .

COMPOSITION. — Hyperyboella Günther, 1938 , Yangtettix Kasalo & Skejo , n. gen.

DIAGNOSIS. — Frontal costa bifurcation at upper quarter of eye height. Paired immediately below frontal costa bifurcation. Midline of antennal grooves at level of ventral margin of eyes. Facial features lower in Yangtettix Kasalo & Skejo , n. gen. Scutellum narrow. Antennae long and filiform, composed of 14 visible segments. Vertex narrow and roundly bulging in anterior view. Anterior margin of pronotum projected in form of spine. Pronotum bulging, especially in caudal half. Tuberculated anterior and middle femora. First segment of anterior tarsus a little elongated, third segment of hind tarsus short. Hind femur robust. Paranota with ventral sinus. Long and curved infrascapular area.

DISTRIBUTION. — New Caledonia.

REMARK

Günther (1934; 1972) noted that the genus Hyperyboella is somewhat similar to Misythus Stål, 1877 , Diotarus Stål, 1877 , Vingselina Stål, 1877 , while Skejo et al. (2020b) assigned this genus to Batrachideinae : Bufonidini Hancock, 1907 and noted its similarity with Vingselina and Bufonides Bolívar, 1898 . A close connection with Diotarus , and Misythus is doubtful since these genera and Hyperyboella share superficial similarities but no apparent synapomorphies. A connection with Bufonides seems more likely as it shares with Hyperyboella features such as a large dome-like pronotum, an anterior pronotal spine, rectangular paranota, robust hind femora with a short third tarsal segment, and sulcate femora. Still, there are major differences between them, i.e., Hyperyboella has around 14 visible antennomeres ( Bufonides more than 20); antennal grooves, frontal costa bifurcation, and paired ocelli are placed much higher in Hyperyboella despite having the same structure of vertex as Bufonides ; legs in Hyperyboella are tuberculated while smooth in Bufonides ; pronotum bulges in Hyperyboella while it bears only minor projections in Bufonides ; paranota of Hyperyboella possess a ventral sinus while this feature is completely absent in Bufonides . It can be hypothesized that these two genera have belonged to separate evolutionary lines for a significant amount of time and can thus be easily separated into distinct groups, which is supported by the vastly different morphologies. A connection with Vingselina is possible, but there are some differences, discussed further below, that do make it difficult to assign Hyperyboella and Vingselina to the same tribe. The genus Yangtettix Kasalo & Skejo , n. gen. is included in this tribe as it is the most similar to Hyperyboella of all the known Batrachideinae-like tetrigids, but doubts still remain, most notably due to the different position of the facial structures, which could just be the result of an upward extension of vertex in Hyperyboella .