Bioacoustics of Arhaphe

Diagnosis. The genus Arhaphe includes species both small to rather large, pilose as well as glabrose. Head is more or less globose, without punctures (or rarely punctured), frons only rarely compressed laterally, strongly gibbose medially ( Figs. 3–6 ) or on the contrary frons medially concave ( Brailovsky 1981: 107: Fig. 10 ), rarely epicranial arms strongly prominent ( Brailovsky 1996: 314: Fig. 2 ). Sides of callar lobe of pronotum strongly convex; callar lobe usually with two prominent longitudinal furrows medially. Callar lobe mostly much larger than pronotal lobe, sides of the pronotal lobe from median constriction towards base of pronotum regularly divergent, not gibbose. Taxonomy. Bliven (1956) erected a new genus, Jarhaphetus , to accommodate a single species— Jarhaphetus argutus Bliven, 1956 . He defined his new genus as follows: “Intermediate in characters between Arhaphe H. S. & Japetus Dist. Head large, subglobose, as wide as base of pronotum, nearly 1½ times as wide as anterior lobe. Body and legs with numerous long setae, anterior lobe of pronotum and underside, densely white tomentose. Anterior femur armed with a distinct, small, subapical tooth. Metasternal orifices distinctly auriculate. Stridulatory apparatus present consisting of corrugations on edge of corium and a rasp on inside of hind femur.” On the contrary, Halstead (1972) considered Jarhaphetus a synonym of Arhaphe (along with Japetus Distant ), with the following reasoning: “Bliven‘s description and photograph of Jarhaphetus argutus clearly match A. cicindeloides . [...] Bliven based his new genus and species on presence of the spine and width of the head, both very variable in this species.” Bliven (1973) argued to maintain it as a separate genus giving only fighting words in flowery English against Halstead, accusing him that “he was again busily picking plums in other peoples‘ orchards”, but giving no morphological characters to support his opinion. Henry (1988) reviewed the controversial opinions of both Halstead and Bliven, and cataloged Jarhaphetus as valid taxon for the time being. Examining a rich sample of Arhaphe species from the United States and Mexico , the senior author found no differences substantiating separate status for Jarhaphetus , as A. arguta fits in all characters within the generic limits of Arhaphe . Therefore we confirm Jarhaphetus as junior synonym of Arhaphe . For the nomenclatural history of Pararhaphe (= Japetus Distant, 1883 ) see the comments under that taxon. Species included. Currently the genus Arhaphe includes 17 described species: