A brief review of genus Panoploscelis

Here I want to talk about a remarkable katydid group, genus Panoploscelis, also with common name spiny lobster katydids or giant lobster crickets. This genus mainly distributes in western and central south America, with three species in it, they are P. armata, P. scudderi and P. specularis. In Hugel. 2019 P. angusticauda has already been synonymized with P. scudderi. Although this is not a big genus, but there are still some problems need to be solved.
Among all the species, P. scudderi is the most clear one, and the most easy to recognize. It has the lightest color, spotty femora with spine on dorsal, especilaly on fore and hind femora. On male individual the dorsal spine on fore femora might be weaker but still recognizable. And this species also disteibute separately with the other species, mainly in the central Amazon.
P. armata is type species of this genus. A male specimen was described by Scudder in 1869. While assigning it as a holotype, the problem is that in 1888 Dohrn drew a draft for a female specimen, showing obvious spines on dorsal femora. After that, dorsal femora spines were assign as a characteristics of P. armata, and their absent on male type and original discription might be regard as sexual difference. But later, a male with dorsal femur spine was observed on iNat, along with other female specimens. Those specimens show that instead of holotype P. armata, the male with dorsal femora spines is actually couple with the female in Dohrn's draft. Dorsal femora spines are always shown on both gender, although with sexual difference that it is shorter on male. We can draw a conclusion that the draft misidentified a new species as P. armata. I temporary call this species P. spinosus, in order to show the more spiny apperance. This new species is closed to P. scudderi in distribution and apperance, but has darker color and longer dorsal femora spine.
P. specularis is the most well-known species in this genus. Most images of Panoploscelis belong to this species. In 1950, only female is described. So it is unable to compare the cerci of male. When Montealegre-Z described male specimen in 2003, he mentioned a redirected species-diagnostic distal spine in inner side of fore femora. But to my view this is not a reliable diagno for P. specularis because every Panopalscelis species seems to have that spine. As I thought P. specularis and P. armata are likely a synonym, I look back to Scudder's P. armata and found he mentioned double row spines beneath front and middle femora. But in Montealegre-Z 2003, femora bearing strong spines on interior ventral margin, that is to say only one row. I think mabe that is the real different? I am trying to count the row of the spines of every observation but it's hard. Maybe exam the holotype and see the femora and cerci of male will be helpful.

Posted on May 29, 2024 06:09 PM by manassas