Farallon Camel Cricket, Farallonophilus cavernicolus (Rentz, 1972) (Orthoptera: Rhapidophoridae), Relationship within the Ceuthophilinae

Farallonophilus cavernicolus (Rentz, 1972) is a member of the family Rhaphidophoridae (camel crickets) endemic to the Farallon Islands. Rentz (1972) hypothesized that F. cavernicolus had characteristics between those of the genera Pristoceuthophilus Rehn, 1903 and Ceuthophilus Scudder, 1862 but closest to the genus Pristoceuthophilus. Currently Pristoceuthophilus is placed in the tribe Pristoceuthophilini and Ceuthophilus in the tribe Ceuthophilini. Farallonophilus cavernicolus is currently placed within the Pristoceuthophilini (Cigliano et al. 2018). We tested this hypothesis and classification by performing mtDNA phylogenetic analysis using collected samples and GenBank sequences. Our results indicate general agreement with current subfamily Ceuthophilinae (which contains the tribes Pristoceuthophilini and Ceuthophilini) relationships except that F. cavernicolus appears to be outside both the Pristoceuthophilini and the Ceuthophilini. Our results suggest that the F. cavernicolus lineage diverged from the Pristoceuthophilini and Ceuthophilini roughly 8.9MYA, roughly 1.6 million years before the Pristoceuthophilini and Ceuthophilini diverged from each other.