Taxonomic review of the grasshopper genus Pteropera Karsch, 1891 (Orthoptera, Acrididea, Catantopinae) with description of three new species and a preliminary phylogeny of the Cameroonian species.

The Afrotropical grasshopper genus Pteropera Karsch, 1891, is reviewed. Some species present in Cameroon are described, Pteroperaaugustini Donskoff, 1981, is recorded for the first time in the country, and three new species are described from Cameroon, Pteroperakennei Yetchom & Husemann, sp. nov. , Pteroperamatzkei Yetchom & Husemann, sp. nov. and Pteroperamissoupi Yetchom & Husemann, sp. nov. , increasing the number of Pteropera species in Cameroon from eight to 12, and overall to 30 species in Central Africa. An updated key of Pteropera is provided. Photographs with data on the distributions of all known species are given. In addition, a phylogenetic tree was constructed using maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference on the basis of a concatenated dataset of COI, 16S, and 12S markers of available Cameroonian species. The maximum likelihood and Bayesian inference analyses of the concatenated datasets resulted in a well-resolved phylogeny of the group and species of Pteropera were recovered as monophyletic, largely with high support. In all cases, the discrimination of all studied species based on barcode information was congruent with the species limits determined by traditional taxonomy. Our findings show the potential of integrative taxonomy to resolve the relationships among grasshoppers below the family level. Further analyses, including more comprehensive taxon sampling and additional nuclear markers, are needed, and the occurrence of several taxa still needs to be confirmed in African rainforests.
Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
(Jeanne Agrippine Yetchom Fondjo, Armand Richard Nzoko Fiemapong, Maurice Tindo, Tarekegn Fite Duressa, Slobodan Ivković, Martin Husemann.)