Bioacoustics of Xenicola brauni

Description: Holotype male (Figs. 1,2). Overall aspect: large-sized katydids, body cylindrical, antennae long, legs long and slender ( Fig. 1A,B ). Head ( Fig. 1C,D ): with a stripe from eye towards the pronotum, in a red-whitered pattern from top to bottom; fastigium of frons with at most a third of the scape width, with round ocelli. Sulcus of fastigium of the vertex reduced, not longer than half of the diameter of eye. Fastigium of the vertex with a negligible elevation. Antennae at least four times larger than the entire body; first five antennomers laterally black, medially yellowish; other antennomers with a repeating colouration pattern, intercalating light and dark bands; scape and pedicel cylindrical, both yellowish on the anterior and medial faces and black on lateral and posterior faces. Thorax: Pronotum ( Fig. 1D,F ): pronotal disc glabrous, yellowish with small reddish punctuations; anterior margin straight; posterior margin black and distinctly elevated; lateral lobes without a sulcus in the middle; a small sulcus interrupting the lateral carinae; lateral carinae with a curved tricolour band from anterior to posterior edge, with a crimson-white-crimson pattern, the bottom crimson line interrupted in the middle third of the lateral carina; anterior edge of lateral lobes of pronotum straight, inferior edge undulated, posterior edge straight, forming an angle of ca. 30º with the pronotal disc. Wings ( Fig. 1E ): tegmina truncated; stridulatory vein (A1) light yellow, very evident in dorsal view; teeth of stridulatory file almost with the same size, intertooth interval broader in the middle of stridulatory file. Legs: coxae and femora black on ventral surface; femora with small black punctuations on dorsal and medial surface; whitish in the proximal and distal portions; femur III brown on lateral face; tibiae laterally yellowish and medially whitish. Superior spine of genicular lobe at least two times longer than the inferior. Abdomen: tergites with several crimson granulations; traversed by a bicolour band (seen only laterally), white-crimson from top to bottom, the white one covering almost a fourth of the first tergite. Tergite X with posterior edge concave, medially depressed. Subgenital plate trapezoidal, posterior processes longer than wide, resembling the Batman mask; median keel longer than half of the length of the plate. Cerci almost straight, thickness decreasing gradually towards the apical curvature, with a black apical tooth on apex. Genitalia ( Fig. 2 ): phallus symmetrical, almost rectangular; ejaculatory vesicles small, oval, in the junction of dorsal fold and dorsal lobe; lower fold of ventral lobe cup-like, apex concave, not exceeding the ventral fold of the dorsal lobe; upper fold of ventral lobe smaller than the lower fold of ventral lobe, finger-like; ventral fold of dorsal lobe almost smooth, with two incisions near the middle; dorsal lobe in ventral view with a small concavity; dorsal lobe, in dorsal view, with a small-depression, tip rounded and with dot-like sclerotizations; dorsal lobe with two basal amorphous sclerotizations both in ventral and dorsal view; dorsal fold somewhat wide, at most half as wide as lower fold of ventral lobe. Paratype female ( Fig. 3 ): larger than males. Fastigium of frons globose, other morphological details of head as in males; one light yellow strip from eye towards the pronotum. Anterior and posterior edge of pronotum concave. Lateral carinae bicolour, white on top and crimson on bottom; blackish on its beginning. Tegmina rounded, the right one with a line of squared stridulatory teeth, forming a W-like vein with a few long teeth. Coloration of legs as in males, with the exception of proximal part of femur II which is light-yellow. Abdomen plain brown coloured, with overall coloration marks as in males. Ovipositor two times longer than the pronotal disc, curved up and acuminate; serrulations beginning on the distal seventh of dorsal valves and distal fifth of ventral valves ( Fig. 3E ). Coloration (live individuals) ( Fig. 4 ): body entirely green with small black scattered spots; a dorsolateral uninterrupted tricolour band from head to abdomen, white on the middle and reddish on the margins. Head entirely green, with scattered small black spots on vertex; greyish eye; pedicel light brown and antennae alternating between brown and white markings. With a black band on posterior edge of pronotum. Light brownish tegmina with black bands on anterior and posterior edges. Legs mostly light brownish with scattered small black spots; femora and tibiae with distal black areas; whitish articulations. Abdomen green with scattered small black spots; abdomen darker on top; brownish cerci. Female with a fully green tegmina and ovipositor, overall coloration as in male.