Lamponius Stål, 1875

Synonymy

Lamponius Stål, 1875b, Recensio Orthopterorum, pp 19, 74.
[ Type species: Pygirhynchus guerini Saussure, 1868, by original monotypy. ]

Kirby, 1904c, Synonymic Catalogue of Orthoptera, I: 343.

Redtenbacher, 1907, Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden, p 340.

Redtenbacher, 1908, Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden, p 357.

Shelford, 1908, Biologia Centrali Americana. Insecta. Orthoptera, II: 355, 358.

Moxey, 1971, Psyche, 78 (1/2): 69.

Antillophilus Carl, 1913, Rev Suisse de Zool, 21 (1): 38.
[ Type species: Antillophilus brevitarsus Carl, 1913, by original monotypy. ]

Rehn & Hebard, 1938, Trans American Ent Soc, LXIV: 39.

Description

Body form elongate and stocky; surface tuberculate to very spinose.

Head slightly elongate, rectangular; vertex slightly swollen, tuberculate to spinose. Antennae longer thant the anterior legs; scape depressed; pedicel subcylindrical. Compound eyes small, but prominent; ocelli absent.

Pronotum elongate, rectangular; anterolateral defensive gland opening present. Prosternum transverse, lyriform. Mesothorax elongate, subcylindrical in the male, more robust in the female, sometimes with a median swelling in the anterior third, the notum faintly medially carinate in the female. Metathorax elongate, rectangular. Median segment transverse in the female, slightly elongate in the male, about 0.6-0.7 times the length of the metanotum.

Abdomen cylindrical in the male, segments II-VIII elongate, IX quadrate, X transverse, apex sometimes produced or emarginate apically. Vomer with the base transverse, rectangular, apical hook strongly chitinized; subgenital plate fornicate, with median transverse and distal longitudinal carinae; genitalia with a strongly-chitinized dorsal sclerite which runs up the dextral side and then across the apex, dextral hook hidden beneath the irregularly-lobed ventral dextral mass.

Abdomen broader in the female, segments II-VI quadrate, VII usually expanded laterally, VIII-X narrower than the preceding, transverse, apex of X emarginate medially. Supraanal plate small, triangular, medially carinate. Sternite VII with a depressed praeopercular organ; subgenital plate elongate, exceeding the end of the abdomen, the apex acuminate or acutely rounded. Cerci short, curved.

Legs generally short and stout, the posterior femora not reaching beyond abdominal segment IV. Anterior femora strongly curved basally, the lower median carina not displaced; middle and posterior femora usually strongly spinose in the distal ventral third. Tibiae anareolate. First posterior tarsomere generally short and not longer than the second, although it may be as long as the next two together, dorsally rounded, not carinate nor sulcate.

Tegmina and wings absent.

Sexual dimorphism pronounced.

Geographic distribution. The genus is entirely restricted to the West Indies, with species known from Mona Island, Puerto Rico, Guadeloupe, and Dominica.

Systematic notes. The genus Antillophilus Carl, 1913, was erected for the single species brevitarsus. Examination of the type material shows that species to be a spiny form of Lamponius guerini (Saussure), and so Antillophilus falls into objective synonymy.

Systematic position.
Superfamily Phasmatoidea | Family Bacteriidae | Tribe Hesperophasmatini