Skip to main content Skip to main navigation menu Skip to site footer
Type: Article
Published: 2026-02-20
Page range: 1-56
Abstract views: 119
PDF downloaded: 7

Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Fifteen new species of Proctolabus Saussure, 1859 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Proctolabinae)

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; University of Michigan; 3600 Varsity Drive; 48108; Ann Arbor; MI; USA.
Laboratory of Ecology; UBIPRO; Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala; Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico; Av. de los Barrios #1; Tlalnepantla; Mexico 54090; Mexico.
Orthoptera Neotropics Legacy collections Cercus Genitalia

Abstract

In this study, a morphological revision of both unidentified and identified specimens of Proctolabus Saussure, 1859 deposited mainly at the Insect Collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology and at Colección de Artrópodos de la Facultad de Estudios Superiores Iztacala (CAFESI) was conducted. This genus is distributed from Northwestern Mexico to El Salvador in Central America, being Mexico the most diverse area with eight known species. Through morphological specimen comparisons among them and against the type material of previously described species, fifteen taxa were found to be new to science. The new taxa described here are P. merianae sp. nov., P. humboldti sp. nov., P. darwini sp. nov., P. cooki sp. nov., P. wallacei sp. nov., P. batesi sp. nov., P. mulleri sp. nov., P. linnaei sp. nov., P. lamarcki sp. nov., P. songi sp. nov., P. fontanai sp. nov., P. buzzettii sp. nov., P. hubbelli sp. nov., P. ottei sp. nov. and P. cantralli sp. nov. These species were collected in Mexico from the states of Sinaloa, Durango, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima and Michoacán. The fifteen new species are characterized by unique morphological features from external and internal male genitalia, being the cerci and the dorsal and ventral valves of the endophallus unique and highly informative.

 

References

  1. Amédégnato, C. (1977) Etude des Acridoidea Centre et Sud Americains (Catantopinae sensu lato): Anatomie des genitalia, classification, répartition, phylogenie. Unpublished Thesis, University of Paris VI, Paris, 385 pp.
  2. Bruner, L. (1908) Orthoptera. The Acrididae. Biologia Centrali-Americana, 2, 249–342.
  3. Cigliano, M.M., Braun, H., Eades, D.C. & Otte, D. (n.d.) Orthoptera Species File. Available from: http://orthoptera.speciesfile.org/ (accessed 02 November 2025)
  4. Cohn, T.J. & Cantrall, I.J. (1974) Variation and speciation in the grasshoppers of the Conalcaeini (Orthoptera: Acrididae, Melanoplinae); the lowland forms of western Mexico, the genus Barytettix. Memoirs of the San Diego Society of Natural History, 6, 1–131.
  5. Descamps, M. (1976) La faune dendrophile néotropicale. I. Revue des Proctolabinae (Orth. Acrididae). Acrida, 5 (2), 63–115.
  6. Hebard, M. (1925) Dermaptera and Orthoptera from the State of Sinaloa, Mexico. Part II: Saltatorial Orthoptera. Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 51 (4), 265–310.
  7. Hubbell, T.H. (1932) A revision of the Puer group of the North American genus Melanoplus, with remarks on the taxonomic value of the concealed male genitalia in the Cyrtacanthacridinae (Orthoptera, Acrididae). Miscellaneous Publications Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, 23, 1–64.
  8. Márquez-Mayaudón, C. (1962) Estudio del género Proctolabus Sauss. con la descripción de una especie nueva. (Acrididae, Cyrtacanthacrinae). Anales del Instituto de Biología, 33 (1–2), 235–245.
  9. Otte, D. & Cohn, T.J. (2002) Review of the genus Sinaloa (Acrididae: Melanoplinae): syntopy and allopatry in the lowlands of western Mexico. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 11 (2), 135–155. https://doi.org/10.1665/1082-6467(2002)011[0135:ROTGSA]2.0.CO;2
  10. Otte, D. (2014) Revision of the Mexican genus Philocleon (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae). Transactions of the American Entomological Society, 140, 209–236. https://doi.org/10.3157/061.140.0113
  11. Rowell, C.H. (2013) The Grasshoppers (Caelifera) of Costa Rica and Panama. The Orthopterists’ Society, 609 pp.
  12. Rowell, C.H.F. & Flook, P.K. (2004) A dated molecular phylogeny of the Proctolabinae (Orthoptera, Acrididae), especially the Lithoscirtae, and the evolution of their adaptive traits and present biogeography. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 13 (1), 35–56. https://doi.org/10.1665/1082-6467(2004)013[0035:ADMPOT]2.0.CO;2
  13. Rowell, C.H.F. & Behrstock, R.A. (2012) Additions to the acridoid grasshopper fauna of El Salvador. Journal of Orthoptera Research, 21 (2), 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1665/034.021.0208
  14. Saussure, H.D. (1859) Orthoptera Nova Americana:(Diagnoses praeliminares). Revue et magasin de zoologie pure et appliquée, 2 (11), 59–212.
  15. Scattolini, M.C., Lira-Noriega, A. & Cigliano, M.M. (2020) Species richness, range size, and wing development in South American melanopline grasshoppers (Orthoptera, Acrididae). Ecological Entomology, 45, 840–853. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.12859
  16. Song, H., Mariño-Pérez, R., Woller, D.A. & Cigliano, M.M. (2018) Evolution, diversification, and biogeography of grasshoppers (Orthoptera: Acrididae). Insect Systematics and Diversity, 2 (4), 3. https://doi.org/10.1093/isd/ixy008
  17. Waters, J.M., Emerson, B.C., Arribas, P. & McCulloch, G.A. (2020) Dispersal Reduction: Causes, Genomic Mechanisms, and Evolutionary Consequences. Trends in Ecology & Evolution, 35 (6), 512–522. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2020.01.012

How to Cite

Mariño-Pérez, R., Sanabria-Urbán, S. & Cohn, T. (2026) Studies in Mexican Grasshoppers: Fifteen new species of Proctolabus Saussure, 1859 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Proctolabinae). Zootaxa, 5760 (1), 1–56. https://doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.5760.1.1