Genus Mioscirtus Saussure, 1888

Mioscirtus Saussure, 1888: 18, 36, 175 (spelled as Microscirtus at page 36); Jacobson. 1905: 252; Kirby, 1910: 218; Uvarov, 1927: 119; Uvarov, 1942: 110; Bey-Bienko & Mishchenko, 1951: 558, 587; Johnston, 1956: 520; Xia, 1958: 136, 157, 158; Shumakov, 1963: 146; Dirsh, 1965: 400, 490; Johnston, 1968: 349; Harz, 1975: 446, 505; Zheng, 1993: 224; Otte, 1995: 376; Yin, Shi & Yin, 1996: 424; Zheng & Xia, 1998: 148.

Thiopteris Houlbert, 1927: 120, 126; Uvarov, 1942: 110 (junior synonym of Mioscirtus).

Type species: Oedipoda wagneri Eversmann, 1849 (subsequently designated by Kirby, 1910).

Generic diagnosis. Body small.

Head. Head short, vertex narrow and elongate, deeply and broadly depressed. Foveolae indistinct. Face slightly oblique in profile view, frontal ridge sulcate throughout with lateral sides carinate. Eyes oval. Antennae filiform, reaching posterior margin of pronotum.

Thorax. Pronotum short, posterior margin rectangularly or acute-angulately protruding backwards; median carina distinct throughout, slightly raised in prozona, interrupted by posterior transverse sulcus only; lateral carinae indistinct or visible only in metazona. Lateral lobes of mesosternum transverse. Tegmina and hind wings developed, usually exceeding apices of hind femora. Tegmina with dense and unsymmetrical veins in the basal half and transparent in the apical half, medial area not broader than cubital area, median intercalary vein closer to media apically. Hind wings with dark fasciae near the base. Hind femora even, upper median carina complete and smooth. Hind tibiae slightly shorter than femora. Hind tarsi slender, claws and arolium small.

Abdomen. Subgenital plate short conical, with apex truncate in male. Ovipositor stout, apex slightly hooklike.

Composition. Type species only (Eades et al, 2013).

Distribution. SOUTH EUROPE, NORTH AFRICA, WEST AND CENTRAL ASIA, WEST CHINA.

Remarks. Saussure (1888) simultaneously used two different spelling, Mioscirtus (page 18) and Microscirtus (page 36), as the genus name, but then chose Mioscirtus as the correct one (page 175). Thus, only Mioscirtus is the valid name of the genus according to Article 24.2 of the Code (International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, 1999).