Oxyprora gladiatrix Piza 1980, comb. nov.

Oxyprora gladiatrix (Piza, 1980) comb. nov.

Liliella gladiatrix Piza, 1980

Liliella Piza, 1980 syn. nov. of Oxyprora Stål, 1873

The description of the genus Liliella does not mention the three very similar genera Oxyprora Stål, 1873, Phoxacris Karny, 1907, and Sphodrophoxus Hebard, 1924. They share a conspicuous medially broadened ovipositor with Piza’s female specimen (which must have inspired him to the species’s name). It seems not clear if Sphodrophoxus jivarus from Ecuador is really different from Phoxacris melanosticta from Bolivia (both genera are monospecific). There are slight differences in the shape of the fastigium, and in Sphodrophoxus it is separated from the frons, as in Oxyprora (Bruner 1915, Hebard 1924). Such a separation is also mentioned in the description of Liliella. Sphodrophoxus jivarus is fairly small (body length 27.5 mm) and is distinguished from the more robust Oxyprora species by a very slender, dorsally smooth, and weakly convex fastigium. In Piza’s species the fastigium is dorsally flat, if not very weakly concave, and has a few small tubercles. And it does not match the other scarcely diagnostic characters of Sphodrophoxus. So we move it under Oxyprora. This genus contains seven other species, four also from Brazil, which display a certain diversity in habitus, and especially shape of fastigium and ovipositor (of five species there are photographs of type specimens in OSF). Oxyprora gladiatrix might be identical with one of the two species without available images: according to Redtenbacher’s (1891) key its basally hardly narrowed fastigium is different from O. acuminata, but according to Kirby (1906) he possibly confused this species with O. acanthoceras.