Bioacoustics of Villalobosothignus bipuntatus

Discussion .— A. bipuntatus can be easily distinguished from A. cursorius by the bifid posterior margin of pygophore and the presence of numerous minute tubercles along the ventral surface of the fore tibiae, Slater & Slater (1999) mentioned a rounded posterior margin of pygophore and four small sharp spines in the fore tibia as generic characters. However, I believe A. bipuntatus is congeneric with A. cursorius . Although traditionally the presence or absence of spines on the legs have been used as generic characters, as seen in the generic revision of the tribe by Harrington (1980) , I consider the spines to be intrageneric variations. Males Females Total length 8,48 7,09 7,09 6,71 Head length 1,32 1,22 1,18 1,12 Head width 1,25 1,15 1,18 1,12 Interocular space 0,70 0,67 0,65 0,63 Interocellar space 0,27 0,28 0,27 0,27 Rostral length 2,15 2,09 2,09 2,07 Seg. I 0,65 0,63 0,62 0,63 Seg. II 0,62 0,62 0,63 0,63 Seg. III 0,47 0,43 0,43 0,40 Seg. IV 0,42 0,40 0,40 0,40 Scutellar length 1,12 0,88 ­­ 0,92 Scutellar width 0,88 0,75 0,88 0,82 Antennal length 8,40 6,84 4,69 4,69 Seg. I 1,53 1,23 0,68 0,67 Seg. II 2,70 2,10 1,43 1,45 Seg. III 2,43 1,93 1,22 1,20 Seg. IV 1,73 1,57 1,35 1,37 Collar length 0,22 0,18 0,17 0,18 Ant. pron. lob. length 1,20 0,85 0,73 0,67 Post. pron. lob. length 0,77 0,67 0,72 0,68 Collar width 0,82 0,73 0,75 0,75 Ant. pron. lob. width 1,23 1,05 1,12 1,05 Post. pron. lob. width 1,73 1,48 1,63 1,58 Length claval commisure 0,92 0,78 0,83 0,85 Distance apex clavus­apex corium 1,77 1,77 1,67 1,60 Distance apex corium­apex abdomen 1,73 1,37 1,20 ­ The presence of a serrated anterior border of corium suggests a stridulatory apparatus, Slater & Slater mentioned an irregular border of corium in A. cursorius but they stated that there is no stridulitrum. The species of Ashlockobius closely resemble Villalobosothignus figueroai , a monotypic species described by Brailovsky (1984) , who mentions for the first time the presence of a stridulatory mechanism for the tribe: costal margin­fore femur, shown by a serrated costal margin, and a difficult to recognize plectrum on the fore femora. It is very possible that these two genera will prove to be congeneric, in which case Villalobosothignus will have priority. V. figueroai is characterized by an antenniferous tubercle very developed and projected externally, at least the posterior pronotal lobe shiny and five spines in the fore tibiae. Unfortunately, I have not been able to determine if Ashlockobius has a stridulitrum and plectrum or not.