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Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae - Checklist Reserva Biológica San Francisco and Parque Nacional Podocarpus (Prov. Zamora-Chinchipe and Loja, S. Ecuador)

Authors:
INTRODUCTION
Within the highly diverse insects the family Tetti-
goniidae, bushcrickets or katydids, with currently
around 6450 described species world-wide (Eades
et al. 2007), forms a relatively small and representative
group, well-suited for ecological studies. Most notably
the species-specific calling songs of the males made
the tettigoniids an ideal subject for a comparatively
easy acoustic assessment in the very steep and diffi-
cult terrain at the ECSF. However, one of the results
of the study is that most species from lower elevations
call exceedingly sporadically, and in general calling
activity increases with elevation. Inhabitants of the
mostly cloud-covered elfin forests call more frequently
and so have been considerably better assessed acousti-
cally. Therefore they spuriously appear to be more
abundant than those species that pay for living in a
warmer tropical climate with the need to be wary of
eavesdropping foliage-gleaning bats, which are mostly
confined to lowland rain forest (only one species,
Micronycteris megalotis, occurs up to about 2000 m;
F. Matt, pers. comm.). Certain easily detectable mid-
elevation species, with very arduously performed and
continuous songs, indicate that most typical forest
species occur at low or extremely low population den-
sities. In contrast, species inhabiting grassland and
disturbed areas are fairly abundant. Only one species,
although short-winged and certainly not very mobile,
seems to be specialized on fern and bamboo thickets
of natural landslides (an undescribed member of the
Agraeciini, cbt051).
The checklist comprises slightly more than 100
species. The calling songs of 63 species were recorded.
Most of them are exclusively nocturnal. The astoni-
shing number of new species, and even genera, is
probably due to the short collection history at higher
elevations in the Andes, possibly combined with re-
stricted distribution ranges of mountain species (of
which this study provided some indications). Two
very small and short-winged species (typical adapta-
tions to their high-altitude habitat) might require their
own subfamily.
METHODS
The distribution data were collected August 1997–
January 2000, with additions from July 2002 and a
few specimens from 2003 (provided by F. Matt). The
search for the predominantly nocturnal tettigoniids
was carried out mostly at night using a headlamp,
walking the few existing paths and trails, following
ravines and creeks, and sometimes bushwhacking
through the dense vegetation. Recordings of their
high-frequency songs were made with a Laar Bridge
Box XL (BVL von Laar, Klein-Görnow, Germany),
which has an ultrasound-sensitive microphone and a
digital loop memory, from which fragments of 5.12
seconds (at 400 kHz sampling rate), 10 times slowed
down, were stored on DAT (digital audio tape) using
a Sony Walkman (models TCD-D7 and TCD-
215
ECOTROPICAL MONOGRAPHS No. 4: 215–220, 2007
© Society for Tropical Ecology
11 ORTHOPTERA:TETTIGONIIDAE
CHECKLIST RESERVA BIOLÓGICA SAN FRANCISCO AND PARQUE NACIONAL
PODOCARPUS
(PROV. ZAMORA-CHINCHIPE AND LOJA, S. ECUADOR)
Holger Braun
Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Zoologie II, Staudtstr. 5, 91058 Erlangen, Germany
present address:
Illinois Natural History Survey, Division of Biodiversity and Ecological Entomology
1816 South Oak Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA
e-mail: grillo@uiuc.edu
D100). This equipment was used for recordings in
the field as well as to record captured individuals ac-
commodated in gauze cages in the station. Additio-
nally, a Mini-3 bat detector (Ultrasound Advice, Lon-
don) was used for acoustic monitoring. This was
especially useful for distinctive songs with easily re-
cognizable temporal patterns. In other cases, field re-
cordings had to be analyzed to identify the species,
comparing pulse structure and carrier frequency
spectra (using the program Avisoft-SASLab Pro, R.
Specht, Berlin). To cover the entire elevational gra-
dient of the area with as high a vertical and topogra-
phical resolution as possible several sites outside the
Reserva Biológica San Francisco were included in the
investigation. Despite more than a total of 1.5 years
living on the station the survey is far from being com-
plete. However, it is difficult to estimate the total
number of species in the area because of the hetero-
geneous collection effort (few available trails and fre-
quent rain periods with little tettigoniid activity) and
diverse data acquisition methods: sightings, acoustic
records (a very high percentage of total records, but
highly dependent on species-specific calling activity
and recognizability of song in the field), vagrants
attracted by the illumination of the station, and
by-catch of the lepidopterists’ light-trapping (ex-
clusively long-winged Phaneropterinae, in part found
by no other method and probably true canopy
species).
Species identification is still incomplete and the
first manuscripts with new descriptions are currently
being produced. Comprehensive taxonomic literature
on Neotropical tettigoniids is rather scarce. Only the
large subfamily Pseudophyllinae has been treated ex-
tensively in a two-volume monograph (Beier 1960/
1962), from which an interactive identification key
within the Orthoptera Species File Online (Eades et
al. 2007) was recently adapted by the author of this
checklist, including all the more recently described
species. In this process many insufficient and ambi-
guous descriptions and several cases of doubtful sy-
nonymizations were encountered, so that additional
type specimens need to be compared in cases where
there are no good photographs of them in the data-
base. A recent monograph on Conocephalinae of
Costa Rica (Naskrecki 2000) focuses on lowland rain
forest and is lacking most mountain genera and spe-
cies. Almost all specimens have been entered into the
DORSA project (photographs and sound recordings,
see voucher information and references).
ADDITIONAL ABBREVIATIONS
For further abbreviations see the general introduction
to this volume; repeats are due to the greater eleva-
tional range investigated.
(a) – in fequency column indicates that distribution
data are in part based on acoustic records (in most
cases a significant part)
216
BRAUN
FIG. 1. Typophyllum egregium male (overall body length 15–16 mm): this species was previously known only
from the female holotype from the volcano Tungurahua, a little more than 300 km north of the investiga-
tion area.
A – Reserva Biológica San Francisco and surroundings
(1750–3100 m)
C – Cajanuma (2750–3340 m)
T – El Tiro, including the local peak, a descending
creek, and the upper part of the old road (2700–2960
m)
N – Quebrada Navidad (crossing the road above
ECSF, around 2050 m)
R – Romerillos: upper valley of Río Jamboe and Que-
brada Avioneta (south of Bombuscaro, 1750–1850 m)
S – Río Sabanilla valley (between ECSF and Bom-
buscaro, 1300–1650 m)
V – Vilcabamba
Y – Yangana area in the southwestern part of Podo-
carpus: Cerro Toledo (2480–3420 m) and Quebra-
da Honda (around 2500 m)
IIa – in vegetation type column indicates here mea-
dows, grassland, and devastated forest across all ele-
vations.
VOUCHER INFORMATION
In the last column the species codes (cbtxxx) are shown,
under which additional specimen data (cbtxxxs01,
-s02, etc.), photographs, and sound files are available
in the SysTax database at http://www.biologie.uni-
ulm.de/systax (search with name of genus or higher
rank). Data will also be included in the Orthoptera
Species File Online (http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org)
once the species are properly described. Type speci-
mens will be deposited in the Museum Alexander
Koenig, Bonn (Germany).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The following persons discovered or collected speci-
mens: Alfonso, Oswaldo Albán, Jan Axmacher, Dirk
Berger, Gunnar Brehm, Eduardo Cueva, Paul Emck,
Santiago Espinosa, Angel Feijóo, Maria Feijóo, Sonia
González, Quint Kellerman, Astrid Löffler, Felix
Matt, Clas Naumann, and Dirk Süssenbach. I am also
indebted to Joachim Holstein, Karl-Heinz Lampe,
and Klaus Riede (Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde
Stuttgart and Museum Alexander Koenig Bonn), as
well as to Theodore Cohn (University of Michigan
Museum of Zoology) and Jason Weintraub (Academy
of Natural Sciences Philadelphia) for support, help,
and accommodation. And I am thankful to Otto
von Helversen (University of Erlangen) who entrusted
me with the tettigoniid part of the project. The
work in Ecuador was funded by the Deutsche For-
schungsgemeinschaft (He 1180/12-1).
REFERENCES
Beier, M. 1960/1962. Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudo-
phyllinae I + II. Das Tierreich 73: 1–468; 74: 1–396.
DORSA – A "Virtual Museum” of German Orthoptera
Collections. URL: http://www.dorsa.de
Eades, D.C., Otte, D., & P. Naskrecki. Orthoptera Species
File Online. Version 2.0/3.1 [September 2007]. URL:
http://Orthoptera.SpeciesFile.org
Naskrecki, P. 2000. Katydids of Costa Rica, Volume 1:
Systematics and bioacoustics of the cone-head katydids
(Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Conocephalinae sensu lato).
The Orthopterists’ Society at the Academy of Natural
Scienes of Philadelphia.
217
ORTHOPTERA
FIG. 2. One of several brachypterous Teleutiini which belong to different undescribed genera, this one re-
lated to Brachyteleutias: “Grünäugige Sabanillaschrecke[“green-eyed Sabanilla bushcricket”] cbt031s01 female
(body length including ovipositor 34 mm).
218
BRAUN
CONOCEPHALINAE
Agraeciini
Acanthacara ? sp. 1 A S 1550 – 2260 ++ (a) nS cbt052
Acanthacara ? sp. 2 A C T 2220 – 2940 + (a) nS cbt053
Acanthacara ? sp. 3 C 2870 s nS cbt054
Loja sp. 1 A S 1550 – 2130 r nS cbt056
Loja sp. 2 B 1000 r nS cbt057
Uchuca sp. 1 A 1750 – 2180 + nS cbt058
Uchuca sp. 2 A N 1870 – 2310 ++ (a) nS cbt059
Uchuca sp. 3 B S 1000 – 1640 ++ (a) nS cbt060
Uchuca sp. 4 A B R 1000 – 1790 r nS ? cbt061
Uchuca sp. 5 B 1000 – 1180 r nS ? cbt062
gen. nov. "Gestrüppschrecklein A N 1800 – 2160 IIa ? ++ (a) nS cbt051
gen. nov. "Buckliges Hornschrecklein A C T 2780 – 3000 + (a) nS cbt055
gen. nov. "Milagro-Zwergschrecke A 2120 – 2230 r (a) nS cbt041
Conocephalini
Conocephalus sp. 1 A S 1550 – 1850 IIa +++ (a) cbt049
Conocephalus equatorialis (Giglio-Tos 1898) B S 1000 – 1500 IIa +++ (a) cbt050
Copiphorini
Copiphora sp. B 1100 s cbt045
Moncheca cf. elegans A 1700 – 1850 + cbt043
Neoconocephalus sp. 1 A B S 1000 – 1850 IIa +++ (a) cbt047
Neoconocephalus sp. 2 A S 1550 – 1850 IIa ++ (a) cbt048
Vestria ? sp. A 1850 – 1860 r cbt046
unidentified nymph B 1160 s cbt044
LISTROSCELIDINAE
gen. nov. "Flachschrecke A S 1640 – 2250 + nS cbt042
PHANEROPTERINAE
Dysoniini
Dysonia sp. 1 A 1800 - 1850 r cbt066
Dysonia sp. 2 A 2320 s cbt067
Dysonia sp. 3 A 2140 – 2320 r cbt068
Dysonia sp. 4 A 1850 s cbt069
Dysonia sp. 5 V ? s cbt070
Dysonia sp. 6 A 1850 s cbt071
Paraphidnia cf. gallina Giglio-Tos 1898 A 1850 – 2250 r cbt064
Paraphidnia sp. 2 B 1000 s cbt065
gen. nov. “Drachenschrecke A T 1850 – 2560 ++ (a) cbt063
Steirodontini
Stilpnochlora sp. 1 V ? s cbt086
Stilpnochlora sp. 2 A 1850 – 2000 r (a) cbt087
Steirodon sp. Zamora 1000 + cbt088
Subfamilies,
tribes
and spp.
Locality
Elevation
(range in m)
Vegetation
Type
Frequency
Chorotype
Degree of
Novelty
Species
code
tribe uncertain
Acropsis sp. B 1000 s cbt082
Anaulacomera sp. 1 A 1850 – 1970 + cbt089
Anaulacomera sp. 2 A 1780 –1850 r cbt090
Anaulacomera sp. 3 A 1830 – 2150 + cbt091
Anaulacomera sp. 4 A 1870 s cbt092
Anaulacomera sp. 5 A 1800 – 1850 r cbt093
Anaulacomera sp. 6 A 1850 r cbt094
Anaulacomera sp. 7 B 1000 r cbt095
Anaulacomera sp. 8 B 1000 s cbt096
Ceraia sp. 1 A 1850 – 2270 + (a) cbt098
Ceraia sp. 2 A 1850 r cbt099
Euceraia sp. 1 A 2100 s cbt100
Euceraia sp. 2 B 1000 s cbt101
Hyperphrona sp. 1 B 1000 r cbt084
Hyperphrona sp. 2 S 1550 r cbt085
Itarissa sp. 1 A S 1540 – 1850 r cbt078
Itarissa sp. 2 A 1800 s cbt079
Marenestha sp. A Y Loja 1740 – 2220 +++ (a) nS cbt075
Parangara sp. 1 A 2120 – 2180 r nS cbt072
Parangara sp. 2 R 1790 s nS cbt073
Pycnopalpa sp. B 1000 s cbt074
Scudderia sp. V ? cbt097
Syntechna cf. olivaceoviridis Brunner von
Wattenwyl 1878 A 1850 – 2010 ++ (a) cbt080
Syntechna cf. angulata Hebard 1924 A T 1850 – 2830 IIa ? ++ (a) cbt081
Viadana sp. 1 A 1850 – 2050 + cbt076
Viadana cf. inversa B 1000 s cbt077
"Rotrücken-Breitflügler I” B 1160 s cbt083
"Große Sichelschrecke A S 1630 – 1850 + cbt102
"Gelbstreifen-Sichelschrecke” B 1000 s cbt103
"Weißgetüpfelte Bombuscaro-Sichelschrecke B 1000 cbt104
PSEUDOPHYLLINAE
Cocconotini
Mystron beieri Montealegre & Morris 1999 A 1700 – 2070 + cbt027
Mystron sp. 2 A 1800 – 2020 r nS cbt028
Mystron sp. 3 A C T 2300 – 3000 ++ (a) nS cbt029
Schedocentrus sp. B S 1120 – 1550 r cbt026
Eucocconotini
Myopophyllum sp. A 1850 r nS cbt018
gen. nov. "Smaragdbeinschrecke B 1000 – 1180 r nS cbt017
Homalaspidini
Disceratus sp. C 2750 – 3000 ++ (a) nS cbt016
219
ORTHOPTERA
Subfamilies,
tribes
and spp.
Locality
Elevation
(range in m)
Vegetation
Type
Frequency
Chorotype
Degree of
Novelty
Species
code
Leptotettigini
Leptotettix voluptarius distinctus Beier 1960 B 1000 – 1140 r nE cbt037
Platyphyllini
Aemasia sp. A 1750 – 1970 r (a) nS cbt020
Brachyauchenus sp. (in SysTax as Drepanoxiphus) A 1850 – 1870 r nS cbt019
Triencentrus sp. 1 S 1300 – 1550 r nS cbt023
Triencentrus sp. 2 A R S 1640 – 1870 r nS cbt024
Triencentrus sp. 3 A 1850 s cbt025
“Romerilloschrecke R 1800 s nS cbt013
gen. nov.? (or Drepanoxiphus) “Sabanilla-
Tüpfelfuß” S 1300 s nS cbt020
gen. nov. A R 1850 – 2240 r nS cbt022
Pleminiini
Aspidopygia peruana Beier 1962 A 1850 s nE n/a
Championica sp. A 1850 r nS cbt012
Entacanthodes sp. B 1000 – 1160 r nS cbt015
Gongrocnemis sp. A 1800 – 2200 r nS cbt014
Leurophyllum albidovenosum Beier 1962 A 1850 r (a) cbt010
Leurophyllum sp. 2 A 1780 – 2130 r (a) nS cbt011
Polyancistrini
Camposiella notabilis Hebard 1924 V Y 2480 + (a) cbt009
Pterochrozini
Cycloptera arcuata Saussure & Pictet 1898 A 1550 – 2110 + (a) cbt008
Typophyllum egregium Hebard 1924 A C T Y 1550 – 2980 ++ (a) cbt002
Typophyllum erosifolium Walker 1870 B 1200 s nE cbt007
Typophyllum lunatum Pictet 1888 A 1810 s cbt006
Typophyllum sp. 1 A R S 1630 – 2950 ++ (a) nS cbt001
Typophyllum sp. 3 [sp. 2 = T. egregium] B 1000 – 1150 r nS cbt003
Typophyllum sp. 4 A 2140 – 2190 r (a) nS cbt004,
cbt005
Teleutiini
Leptoteleutias ? sp. A C T 1880 – 2880 + nS cbt032
Pemba cochleata Beier 1960 A R S 1550 – 1850 + cbt036
Teleutias castaneus Brunner von Wattenwyl
1895 ? B 1000 – 1260 ++ (a) cbt035
gen. nov. "Dunkle Tränenschrecke T 2750 – 2820 r nS cbt033
gen. nov. "Grünäugige Sabanillaschrecke S R 1550 – 1790 r nS cbt031
gen. nov. "Kurzflügliger Ringelfuß” A 1850 – 2170 ++ (a) nS cbt030
gen. nov. "Milagroschrecke A 2210 – 2230 r (a) nS cbt034
SUBFAMILY UNCERTAIN
gen. nov. "Consuelo-Zwergschrecke A C 2460 – 2840 + (a) nS cbt039
gen. nov. "Elfenwald-Zwergschrecke A C T 2710 – 3210 ++ (a) nS cbt040
220
BRAUN
Subfamilies,
tribes
and spp.
Locality
Elevation
(range in m)
Vegetation
Type
Frequency
Chorotype
Degree of
Novelty
Species
code
... More recently, some taxonomic contributions were made to Uchuca, and the number of species within the genus increased to eight (Chamorro-Rengifo & Braun 2010;Montealegre-Z & Morris 2003;Tavares et al. 2016). Several other authors have recorded Uchuca species (including some not yet described or not identified) from various parts of the Amazon rainforest, Ecuadorian Andes, and Pacific coast of Colombia and Ecuador (Braun 2002(Braun , 2008Cadena-Castañeda & Westerduijn 2013;Chamorro-Rengifo et al. 2011;Montealegre-Z et al. 2011;Naskrecki 2007Naskrecki , 2011Naskrecki , 2013Nickle & Castner 1995) -Nickle (2007 mentioned that the species found in Nickle & Castner (1995) in Peru, were described posteriorly by Montealegre-Z & Morris (2003). Among all authors, the contribution of Montealegre-Z & Morris (2003) may be the most important because they redescribed Uchuca and properly delimited the generic boundaries, reliably distinguishing it from its supposedly closest related genus, Dectinomima Caudell. ...
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Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudo-phyllinae I + II
  • M Beier
Beier, M. 1960/1962. Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudo-phyllinae I + II. Das Tierreich 73: 1–468; 74: 1–396