Revision of the Poecilimon ornatus group (Orthoptera: Phaneropteridae) with particular reference to the taxa in Bulgaria and Macedonia

Abstract

Abstract. The Poecilimon ornatus group has an exclusively European distribution and includes the largest species in the genus. A revision of the taxa belonging to this group in Bulgaria and Macedonia (Central and Eastern Balkan Peninsula) is presented. Nine taxa described from Bulgaria are synonymised with 3 previously known species, as follows: Poecilimon ornatus (= P. mistshenkoi marzani, syn. n., P. mistshenkoi tinkae, syn. n., P. mistshenkoi vlachinensis, syn. n.), P. affinis s. str. (= P. mistshenkoi mistshenkoi, syn. n., P. affinis ruenensis, syn. n., P. affinis rilensis, syn. n., P. affinis medimontanus, syn. n., P. harzi, syn. n.) and P. hoelzeli (= P. kisi, syn. n.). The synonymy of P. poecilus with P. affinis and the subspecific status of P. affinis komareki are confirmed. One species, Poecilimon jablanicensis, sp. n., is described as new to science. A tabulated key, lists and maps of all known localities and oscillograms of the songs of all the species in this group are presented. The phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary trends in the Poecilimon ornatus group are discussed.

Evolution and systematics of Green Bush-crickets (Orthoptera: Tettigoniidae: Tettigonia) in the Western Palaearctic: testing concordance between molecular, acoustic, and morphological data

“…In bush-crickets, the songs of closely related species, especially those that speciated in allopatry, usually have a lineage-specific amplitude-temporal pattern that enables recognition for systematic purposes and for drawing conclusions about paths of speciation (e.g., Heller 1990Heller , 2006Chobanov and Heller 2010). In Tettigonia, differences between species have been observed in the time and frequency domains, while particular song-recognizing mechanisms may depend on the geographic and ecological preferences of the species (Schul 1994;Schul et al 1998).…”

The evolution of sex differences in mate searching when females benefit: new theory and a comparative test

“…Ideally, phylogenetic signal should be accounted for in order to fully understand the relationship between pair-forming behaviour and spermatophore size variation across species [35 -37]. While male searching is likely to have evolved independently in Poecilimon at least four times (P. propinquus group, P. ornatus group, P. pergamicus group and P. heroicus group [10,22,24,25,38]), insufficient data currently exist on phylogeny and spermatophore size for a comparative analysis using phylogenetically independent contrasts of Poecilimon taxa that differ in searching behaviour. However, while accounting for ancestry and body mass among a smaller group (23) of Poecilimon species for which phylogenetic relationships are known, a recent study [39] found a significant relationship between spermatophylax mass and ampulla mass.…”

Contribution to the Knowledge of Orthoptera on Belasitsa Mountain, South-East Macedonia

“…Local faunistic information has been reported by Chobanov [26] and Micevski et al [27] and the to-date information on Orthoptera of Macedonia has been critically summarized by Chobanov & Mihajlova [4]. In addition, three new species have been described from the territory of this country by Chobanov & Heller [28], Karaman et al [29] and Chobanov et al [30], some faunistic records were added by Lemonnier-Darcemont [31], Chobanov et al [32] and a "Red list of Orthoptera of the Republic of Macedonia" was published by LemonnierDarcemont et al [33]. Thus, currently the number of recognized species for Macedonia is 171 (with two additional subspecies).…”