Mecopoda niponensis

Mecopoda niponensis (Haan, 1843) The species can morphologically be separated from all other congeneric species by its short and wide tegmina (Fig. 5 A; see measurements in Liu Cx et al. 2020). Also its trilling calling song, studied in China (Liu YF et al. 2019; Liu Cx et al. 2020), Japan (Ichikawa et al. 2006; Yamamoto 2006) and Korea (Kim 2009), shows a characteristic amplitude modulation (see Fig. 6���7), clearly different from other Mecopoda species. However, we have a specimen from Vietnam at hand in which morphology and song pattern disagree. The trilling song of this animal shows the typical niponensis pattern, but it has unusually long and narrow tegmina. With a length/width ratio of 3.43 it is just outside the range (2.19���3.36) given by Liu Cx et al. (2020) for niponensis. More important, the tegmen length (55 mm) is far outside the range of niponensis (34���49 mm, Liu Cx et al. 2020; 40���43 mm in Korea, Storozhenko et al. 2015). Since it has additional song components not known from niponensis, and was found outside the known range of the species, we consider it as member of a new subspecies (see below).
Published as part of Heller, Klaus-Gerhard, Baker, Ed, Ingrisch, Sigfrid, Korsunovskaya, Olga, Liu, Chun-Xiang, Riede, Klaus & Warcha��owska-��liwa, El��bieta, 2021, Bioacoustics and systematics of Mecopoda (and related forms) from South East Asia and adjacent areas (Orthoptera, Tettigonioidea, Mecopodinae) including some chromosome data, pp. 101-144 in Zootaxa 5005 (2) on page 114, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.5005.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/5141281
{"references":["Haan, W. de (1843) Bijdragen tot de kennis der Orthoptera. In: Temminck, C. J. (Ed.), Verhandelingen over de Natuurlijke Geschiedenis der Nederlansche Overzeesche Bezittingen, de Leden der Natuurkundige Commissie in Indie en andere Schrijvers, Leiden, 19 / 20, pp. 165 - 228.","Ichikawa, A., Ito, F., Kano, Y., Kawai, M., Tominaga, O. & Murai, T. (Eds.) (2006) Orthoptera of the Japanese Archipelago in color. s. n., Sapporo, 688 pp. + 2 CD.","Kim, T. W. (2009) Taxonomy and acoustic signals of Korean Tettigonioidea (Orthoptera: Ensifera) II. National Institut of Biological Reserves, Incheon. [+ CD]","Storozhenko, S. Y., Kim, T. W. & Jeon, M. J. (2015) Monograph of Korean Orthoptera. National Institute of Biological Resources, Incheon, 377 pp."]}