Studies on Neotropical Phasmatodea XVI: Revision of Haplopodini Günther, 1953 (rev. stat.), with notes on the subfamily Cladomorphinae Bradley & Galil, 1977 and the descriptions of a new tribe, four new genera and nine new species (Phasmatodea: “Anareolatae”: Phasmatidae: Cladomorphinae)

Abstract

The anareolate New World subfamily Cladomorphinae Bradley & Galil, 1977 is reviewed and keys to the six tribes currently included are presented; these are: Cladomorphini Bradley & Galil, 1977, Cladoxerini Karny, 1923, Cranidiini Günther, 1953, Pterinoxylini n. trib., Hesperophasmatini Bradley & Galil, 1977 and Haplopodini Günther, 1953 rev. stat.. New diagnoses are presented for all these tribes and possible relationships within Cladomorphinae are discusssed. Morphology of the genitalia and egg-structures indicate Cladomorphinae as presently treated to be polyphyletic. Two subordinate groups are recognized within present Cladomorphinae, which differ considerably in numerous morphological characters of the insects and eggs. The first group and here regarded as Cladomorphinae sensu stricto is formed by the mostly South American Cladomorphini + Cranidiini + Cladoxerini, while the second group is formed by the predominantly Caribbean Hesperophasmatini + Pterinoxylini n. trib. + Haplopodini. Members of the first group (= Cladomorphini sensu stricto) share the dorsally carinate basitarsus in which the two dorsal carinae are melted with another, increasingly elongated gonapophyses VIII of females which are noticeably longer than gonapophyses IX and lamellate as well as strongly displaced medioventral carina of the profemora. Cranidiini + Cladomorphini share the strongly elongated and filiform gonapophyses VIII and presence of gonoplacs in the females, specialized poculum of males and presence of a median line in the eggs. Cranidiini differs from all other tribes of Cladomorphinae by the entirely unarmed legs of both sexes, distinctly broadened and leaf-like body and prominent longitudinal keel of the mesosternum of females, prominently enlarged poculum and spinulose phallus of males as well as the conspicuous narrowing of the posteromedian gap of the internal micropylar plate of the eggs and noticeably separated median line. Cladomorphini is characteristic for the specialized vomer and poculum of males and distinct opercular structures of the eggs. Certain representatives of Cladomorphini indicate relationships to the "Phanocles-group" of Diapheromerinae: Diapheromerini, hence Cladomorphini as presently treated may be paraphyletic. The exclusively South American Cladoxerini (= Baculini n. syn.) differs from the other two tribes of Cladomorphinae sensu stricto by the distinctly serrate profemora of both sexes and conspicuously shortened antennae of females, which consist of less than 30 segments and are much shorter than the profemora in females. Genital morphology, such as the elongated gonapophyses VIII and presence of gonoplacs in females, as well as the lamellate medioventral carina of the profemora indicate close relation to Cladomorphini. Cranidiini appears to be the sister-taxon of Cladomorphini + Cladoxerini. The tribe Baculini Günther, 1953 is synonymised with Cladoxerini (n. syn.), on the basis that the type-genera of both tribes are congeneric, with Baculum Saussure, 1861 being a junior synonym of Clado...

The worldwide status of phasmids (Insecta: Phasmida) as pests of agriculture and forestry, with a generalised theory of phasmid outbreaks

“…Sinophasma brevipenne Günther, 1940 [125] Zeng et al (2002 in [115]) report up to 500 of these insects infesting the crowns of trees in Guiyang (Guizhou Province) in 1983, with many trees in the centre of the city being completely defoliated.…”

Description of the female, egg and first instar nymph of the stick insect Paraphasma paulense (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae) from Southeast Brazil

“…Most of the information on stick insects from the country is limited to original descriptions of species, mainly in the works by Gray (1835), Burmeister (1838), Westwood (1859), Bates (1865) and Kirby (1904), in the monograph by Brunner von Wattenwyl (1907) and Redtenbacher (1906Redtenbacher ( , 1908, and in various papers by Toledo Piza (1936, 1937, 1938, 1944, among others). Recently, only a few studies have addressed Brazilian stick insects, such as: three broad taxonomic revisions that included some Brazilian taxa (Zompro 2001, 2004, Hennemann et al 2016; the redescription of Tithonophasma tithonus (Gray, 1835) (Lima et al 2013); and the descriptions of one new species in the genus Cladomorphus Gray, 1835 (Kumagai and Fonseca 2009), and another in Agrostia Redtenbacher, 1906(Heleodoro et al 2017. Furthermore, few Brazilian species have the egg described in spite of the importance of egg morphology and egg-laying mechanism in Phasmatodea taxonomy and phylogenetics (Sellick 1997, Clark Sellick 1998, Zompro 2004, Goldberg et al 2015.…”

Revisão taxonômica e análise filogenética de Paraphasma Redtenbacher, 1906 (Phasmatodea: Pseudophasmatidae: Stratocleinae)

“…Após as suas obras, a fauna brasileira voltou a ser abordada somente em contribuições esporádicas, já no século XXI, restritas a um catálogo de material tipo depositado em coleções brasileiras (Zompro & Domenico 2005), um levantamento de espécies da Serra do Espinhaço, Minas Gerais (Araujo & Garraffoni 2012), e algumas descrições ou redescrições isoladas (Zompro & Adis 2001;Kumagai & Fonseca 2009;Lima et al 2013). Esse cenário, porém, parece estar começando a mudar, como sugerido pela recente publicação de um número razoável de contribuições ao conhecimento da fauna brasileira de Phasmatodea, incluindo descrições e redescrições de espécies (Chiquetto- Machado & Albertoni 2017;Heleodoro et al 2017a,b;Chiquetto-Machado 2018;Chiquetto-Machado et al 2018;Heleodoro & Rafael 2018, 2019) e a inclusão de alguns táxons brasileiros como parte de duas revisões taxonômicas mais abrangentes (Hennemann et al 2016;2018).…”

“…As descrições e caracteres filogenéticos relacionados à morfologia externa seguem, de forma geral, a terminologia comumente utilizada em Phasmatodea (como, por exemplo, em Gottardo & Vallotto 2014, Hennemann et al 2016, 2018e Chiquetto-Machado 2018. Optouse, no entanto, por não se utilizar o termo "póculo" (em inglês, "poculum"), que normalmente se refere apenas à região posterior distintamente côncava da placa subgenital do macho (como utilizado por Gottardo & Vallotto op.…”

“…Até hoje, a taxonomia de Phasmatodea baseia-se essencialmente na morfologia externa dos adultos e em características do ovo (ver, como exemplos de trabalhos taxonômicos recentes, Hennemann et al 2016, 2018, Vallotto et al 2016, Bresseel & Constant 2018. Embora a genitália interna masculina de um certo número de espécies tenha sido examinada por Chopard (1920), Walker (1922), Snodgrass (1937), Camousseight (1995Camousseight ( , 2005Camousseight ( , 2010 e Dominguez et al (2009), somente descrições superficiais e ilustrações simples foram fornecidas por esses autores.…”