Tisamenus ranarius

Tisamenus ranarius is a stick insect species (Phasmatodea), in the family of the Heteropterygidae native to the Philippines.[1]

Tisamenus ranarius
Tisamenus ranarius, female holotype from Natural History Museum
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Phasmatodea
Family: Heteropterygidae
Subfamily: Obriminae
Tribe: Obrimini
Genus: Tisamenus
Species:
T. ranarius
Binomial name
Tisamenus ranarius
(Westwood, 1859)
Synonyms[1]
  • Acanthoderus ranarius Westwood, 1859
  • Heterocopus ranarius (Westwood, 1859)
  • Ilocano ranarius (Westwood, 1859)
holotype in sideview

Description

Only females are known of this species. These reach a length of 42 to 44 millimetres (1.7 to 1.7 in) and have remarkably few spines for a Tisamenus species. The triangle on the mesonotum typical of the genus is only indicated and hardly recognizable. Rather, it consists of slightly curved crests on the mesonotum. The antennae are very short and consist of 16 to 17 segments. Tuberculous spines are found only on the pronotum and head, where they are formed as suborbitals. The front angles of the pronotum are pointed. The meso- and metathorax form a trapezoid that widens backwards, to which the abdomen attaches approximately the width of the anterior edge of the mesonotum. A distinct longitudinal crest runs from the anterior edge of the mesonotum over the metanotum to the end of the abdomen. On the rear abdominal segments, its parts are clearly tooth-like. The ovipositor is short and beak-shaped.[2][3]

Taxonomy
drawing from the species description in 1859 by Westwood[4]

John Obadiah Westwood described the species in 1859 under the basionym Acanthoderus ranarius using a female, which he also depicts.[4] William Forsell Kirby transferred the species in 1904 to the genus Tisamenus, which was established in 1875.[5] In 1906, Joseph Redtenbacher counted the species in addition to the Heterocopus leprosus, which he described, to the genus Heterocopus, which he also listed here. He distinguishes it from Tisamenus by its bluntly keeled, much less spined body.[2] Lawrence Bruner also left it at this assignment in 1915.[1] In 1939, James Abram Garfield Rehn and his son John William Holman Rehn did not transfer the species to the genus Hoploclonia like all current Tisamenus species, but to the genus Ilocano set up for Ilocano hebardi (today Tisamenus herbardi), which has been synonymized with Tisamenus since 2021.[3][6] The assignment to Ilocano remained until 2004.[1] Only Oliver Zompro transferred the species back to Tisamenus together with all other Philippine representatives except Ilocano hebardi.[7]

The female used by Westwood for the description is deposited as holotype in the Natural History Museum in London. Another female, labeled as another type, is in the Oxford University Museum of Natural History, although Westwood based the description only on material from the Natural History Museum in London. Neither the exact location nor any other information is stored for these specimens.[1][8]

References
  1. Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W. Phasmida Species File Online. Version 5.0. (accessdate 27 February 2023)
  2. Redtenbacher, J. (1906). Die Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden. Vol. 1. Phasmidae Areolatae. Verlag Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, pp. 45–46, pl. 1 fig 9
  3. Rehn, J. A. G. & Rehn, J. W. H. (1939). The Orthoptera of the Philippine Island, Part 1. - Phasmatidae; Obriminae, Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences (Vol. 90, 1938), Philadelphia 1938/39, pp. 468–471
  4. Westwood, J. O. (1859). Catalogue of orthopterous insects in the collection of the British Museum; Part I., Phasmidae, London, p. 53, pl. 4 fig. 3
  5. Kirby, W. F. (1904). A synonymic catalogue of Orthoptera. 1. Orthoptera Euplexoptera, Cursoria et Gressoria. (Forficulidae, Hemimeridae, Blattidae, Mantidae, Phasmidae), p. 399
  6. Bank, S.; Buckley, T. R.; Büscher, T. H.; Bresseel, J.; Constant, J.; de Haan, M.; Dittmar, D.; Dräger, H.; Kahar, R. S.; Kang, A.; Kneubühler, B.; Langton-Myers, S. & Bradler, S. (2021). Reconstructing the nonadaptive radiation of an ancient lineage of ground-dwelling stick insects (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae), Systematic Entomology, p. 13 & p. 16, DOI: 10.1111/syen.12472
  7. Zompro, O. (2004). Revision of the genera of the Areolatae, including the status of Timema and Agathemera (Insecta, Phasmatodea), Goecke & Evers, Keltern-Weiler, p. 205 & pp. 200–207, ISBN 978-3-931374-39-6
  8. Brock, P. D.; Judith A. Marshall, J. A.; Beccaloni, G. W. & Allan J. E. Harman, A.J.E. (2016). The types of Phasmida in the Natural History Museum, London, UK, Zootaxa 4179(2), p. 191, doi:10.11646/zootaxa.4179.2.1.

Data related to Tisamenus draconina at Wikispecies Media related to Tisamenus draconina at Wikimedia Commons

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