The Tribe Thrinchini of the Subfamily Pamphaginae, and the Interrelations of the Acridid Subfamilies (Orthoptera)

Revision of the genus Prionotropis Fieber, 1853 (Orthoptera: Pamphagidae: Thrinchinae)

“…Ramme (1933) describing Prionotropis urfensis, separated it from P. maculinervis by the shape of the male pronotum which should be more robust, more arched and convex, coarser tubercles and a steeper typical sulcus in lateral view and by the coloration of the hind legs, of which hind femur has a discoloured inner side (instead of blackish), hind tibia pale orange instead of reddish-yellow to red. However, Uvarov (1943) considered the morphological differences of P. urfensis small and moved it at subspecies level of P. maculinervis, because of the coloration of the hind legs. Ramme (1951) agreed with Uvarov's opinion and treated P. urfensis as a subspecies of P. maculinervis.…”

“…When they were discovered, both P. rhodanica and P. azami were considered to be disjoint populations of the Balkanic P. hystrix (Chopard 1922). However, Uvarov (1923) found differences between the two populations and named them P. hystrix azami and P. hystrix rhodanica respectively, but later he raised P. rhodanica to species level, and maintained azami as subspecies of hystrix (Uvarov 1943). Also Harz (1975) followed this arrangement, while Foucart (1995), finding a wide variability within the populations of the three taxa, proposed to consider again azami and rhodanica subspecies of P. hystrix, as in the initial view of Uvarov (1923).…”

“…Among Thrinchinae, generally widespread in Asia, only Glyphotmethis Bei-Bienko, 1951, Asiotmethis Uvarov, 1943, Glyphanus Fieber, 1853and Prionotropis Fieber, 1853 are present in Europe, but while the first three genera have a restricted distribution in the most eastern parts of Europe (Caucasia, Crimea, European Turkey, Greece and Macedonia: Ünal 2007a, 2007b, Willemse & Willemse 2008, the genus Prionotropis covers the entire Mediterranean area including the most western parts (Iberian peninsula). Interestingly, the genus is represented by isolated populations, some of which are recognized as different taxa; their taxonomic status has been debated for over one hundred years.…”

“…Epiphallus with short ancorae, pseudolophi present (Ünal 2014), valves of penis up-curved or straight. Ovipositor short, stout, wide.Species belonging to the genus Prionotropis developed some specializations for stridulation, namely: 1) mid tibiae have the upper margin wrinkled and during flight they rub the lower side of their modified and wrinkled anal veins of the hind wings, like the bow of a violin (Pantel 1896, Bolívar 1921, Uvarov 1943; all the species, both sexes (also the females, which have micropterous wings), show this specialization (Figs 1-5), that characterizes the subfam. Thrinchinae; 2) the inner side of the hind femora bear minute rounded tubercles that could rub on Krauss' organ (Krauss 1878, Saussure 1888); it was found in both P. hystrix and P. rhodanica, but it is a specialization of most Thrinchinae (Foucart 1995, Popov 1997, Ünal 2007a, Massa 2012; 3) a tegmino-alar stridulation has been described for P. rhodanica by Foucart (1995) and for P. appula , and probably occurs in other species of the genus and of the subfam.…”

Analysis of the number of sensilla on the labrum and the diet of grasshoppers belonging to the family Pamphagidae (Orthoptera)

“…In a previous study we recorded 16 species and described a new species belonging to the Pamphagus djelfensis complex (Benkenana et al, 2012) in Eastern Algeria, based on the revisions of Chopard (1943), Uvarov (1943), Descamps & Mounassif, 1972), Biondi & Massa (1995), Massa & Cusimano (1979), Massa & Biondi (1987), Massa & Lo Verde (1990), Massa et al (1993) and Massa (1992Massa ( , 1996. In particular, we studied the distribution, climatic constraints and some aspects of the biology of each species.…”