Phelene Bolivar 1906

Phelene Bolívar, 1906 stat. resurr.

Nephele Bolívar, 1887 (preoccupied)

Gladiotettix Hancock, 1907 syn. (Kirby, 1910 and Uvarov, 1940)

Redescription. Body slightly granulate, slim and elongated (Figs. 2, 4). Head: frontal costa bifurcation located near the top of the vertex, between the compound eyes; scutellum slightly narrow, with carinae subparallel moderately separated; lower margin of the antennal grooves located between of the lower margin of the compound eyes (Figs. 3A, 5A); eyes subglobose, with rounded dorsal surface and straight ventral margin (in lateral view) and exerted at level of pronotum; antennae 13–14 segmented, mostly filiform with the six first segments shorts and the others elongated, last three or two segments flattened and slightly expanded; vertex very wide and flat in dorsal view, median carinae absent (Figs. 2C, 5B). Facial outline sub-vertical, waving between the connection of the facial carinae and the frontal carinae. Fastigium of vertex not reaching the most anterior margin of the eyes, usually well behind this point, truncate from above; fastigio-fascial angle rounded; frontal costa short and connected with the facial carinae and reaching near the middle of the face; palpi with first three segments cylindrical and last two rounded and flattened, with the same color as the predominant coloration of the body (Figs. 3, 4A, 5A). Pronotum: slender, surpassing the tip of hind femora (macropronotal), pronotal disc flat or with a hump at meso and metathorax level; anterior margin straight not produced, humeral angles obtuse, lateral shoulder carina rounded; lateral lobe sub-triangulated and not pointed apex; infra-scapular area slim and short; apex of pronotum truncated (Figs. 2, 4). Wings: tegmina oblong and spotless; hind wings surpassing the abdomen tip (Figs 2A, 3B, 4A). Legs: fore and mid legs elongate, dorsal and ventral margin carinated and without dorso-apical spine; hind femur without lappets and with an antegenicular tooth developed, although less conspicuous than Lophotettix; chevrons ridges in the external surface well visible with six to seven ridges. Hind tibia dorsally serrulated and having the apex slightly dilated; first segment of the hind tarsus longer than the third one. Terminalia: penultimate male sternite rounded at apex; male subgenital plate slender with apex slightly divided, cerci conical and straight. Ovipositor valves slim, straight and slightly serrulated on its margins; female subgenital plate emarginated along ventro-apical edge (Fig. 3B).

Taxa included. P. turgida (Bolívar, 1887) stat. rev. (type species by subsequent monotypy) and P. maroon n. sp.

Comments. In the original description of the genus (Bolívar, 1887), two species were included Nephele turgida and Tetrix asmodaeus Serville, 1838 (currently Pterotettix asmodaeus (Serville, 1838)). Later, Bolívar (1906) changed the name to Phelene (preoccupied Nephele of Hübner 1819 (Lepidoptera)), but Hancock (1909) and Bruner (1910), did not notice this change and changed the name of Nephele by Gladiotettix. Although Kirby (1910) and Uvarov (1940) made the respective correction independently. Recently, Cadena-Castañeda & Cardona-Granda (2015) synonymized Phelene under Chiriquia, due to the similarity in habitus with some species of this genus such as Chiriquia mirifica Hebard, 1924. But studying again the type specimens of P. turgida, the affiliation of the genus with Lophotettiginae is corroborated, and the similarity in habitus with Chiriquia, it is only one of the many cases of convergence between the different tetrigids groups. Phelene stat. resurr. is revalidated, including its only one species and a new species.