Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Liladownsia fraile, a new genus and species of Dactylotini (Acrididae: Melanoplinae) and an updated molecular phylogeny of Melanoplinae

Abstract

Liladownsia fraile gen. nov. sp. nov. Fontana, Mariño-Pérez, Woller & Song (Lila Downs' friar grasshopper) of the tribe Dactylotini (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae) is described from the pine-oak forest of the Sierra Madre del Sur Mountain Range in Oaxaca, Mexico. Taxonomic placement of this new genus is justified based on morphological characters as well as a molecular phylogeny. Information about the probable host plant, phenology, and known localities is also presented. We also present an updated molecular phylogeny of Melanoplinae, which includes representatives of five of the seven recognized tribes. The monophyly of the subfamily and the included tribes is tested and we find Dactylotini to be paraphyletic because of the placement of Hesperotettix Scudder, 1876. We also recover strong close relationships between the new genus and Perixerus Gerstaecker, 1873 and Dactylotum Charpentier, 1845.

Phylogenetic relationship of Japanese Podismini species (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae) inferred from a partial sequence of cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene

“…In present trees, Dichroplini species were recovered as a monophyletic group, in agreement with the analysis of Chapco (2006) and Woller et al (2014). On the other hand, Chintauan-Marquier et al (2011) found the paraphyly of Dichroplini.…”

“…Previous studies of Dactylotini including Hesperotettix viridis Thomas, 1872 discovered that this tribe is paraphyletic (Chapco 2006, Chintauan-Marquier et al 2011, Woller et al 2014. The prior analysis of the melanopline tribes placed Jivarini in a basal position in the subfamily (Amédégnato et al 2003, Woller et al 2014). In our results, Jivarini species were clustered together with Podismini representatives.…”

“…In our results, Jivarini species were clustered together with Podismini representatives. Different studies , Chintauan-Marquier et al 2014, Woller et al 2014 recovered Podismini as a monophyletic group, while Litzenberger and Chapco (2003) hypothesized a paraphyly of Podismini.…”

Chromosome evolution and phylogeny in Ronderosia (Orthoptera, Acrididae, Melanoplinae): clues of survivors to the challenge of sympatry?

“…Our total genetic dataset consisted of 1773 bp from three mitochondrial genes: protein‐coding cytochrome oxidase I (COI 633bp), cytochrome oxidase II (COII 393bp), and ribosomal coding (16S 424bp); and one nuclear fragment of the ribosomal internal transcribed spacer 2 (ITS‐2 323bp). Previous studies in Acrididae (Colombo et al ., ; Husemann et al ., ; Song et al ., ; Chintauan‐Marquier et al ., ; Woller et al ., ) have demonstrated that these molecular markers are informative and useful for comparison between species. Specific details on DNA extraction, PCR profiles, primers, and sequencing reactions can be found in Colombo et al .…”

“…). Although Ronderosia was recently included in the Scotussae genus group (Dinghi et al ., ), its phylogenetic relationships within the group is debatable (Colombo et al ., ; Chapco, ; Dinghi et al ., ; Woller et al ., ).…”