An Annotated Checklist of The Endemic And Sub-endemic Grasshoppers ( Orthoptera : Caelifera ) of Egypt

Citation: Egypt. Acad. J. Biolog. Sci. (A. Entomology) Vol.8 (3)pp.13-29(2015) Egyptian Academic Journal of Biological Sciences is the official English language journal of the Egyptian Society for Biological Sciences, Department of Entomology, Faculty of Sciences Ain Shams University. Entomology Journal publishes original research papers and reviews from any entomological discipline or from directly allied fields in ecology, behavioral biology, physiology, biochemistry, development, genetics, systematics, morphology, evolution, control of insects, arachnids, and general entomology. www.eajbs.eg.net Provided for non-commercial research and education use. Not for reproduction, distribution or commercial use.

Endemic taxa are those found only in a particular region and nowhere else in the world and they are of great conservation concern (Abdel-Dayem 2012).Of secondary importance are those species which are endemic to a slightly larger geographic region such as Egypt and its immediate neighbours, and are referred to here as sub-endemic species.
North African biodiversity is threatened by the continuous increase of human and livestock populations.Habitat loss as a result of human encroachment threatens the survival of species, and in order to curb the rate of species extinctions, there is an urgent need to identify potential areas for conservation prioritization (Médail & Quézel 1999).
Egypt is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and the southwest corner of Asia (Sinai Peninsula).Egyptian fauna and flora are unique, combining characteristics of both Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions (Steyskal & El-Bialy 1967, Semida et al. 2001).Sinai Peninsula is a triangular peninsula of roughly 60000 km 2 on the Asian continent.It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, and the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba on the west and southeast, respectively.
Egypt as a whole forms a part of the Great Desert Belt, and is characterized by a warm and almost rainless climate.Ecologists divide Egypt into 8 geomorphological zones: Coastal Strip, Lower Delta Nile Valley, Upper Nile Valley, Fayoum Basin, Eastern Desert, Gabal Elba, Sinai Peninsula and Western Desert (Fig. 1;Larsen 1990).Only the Coastal Strip, Eastern Desert, Gabal Elba, and higher parts of southern Sinai mountains receive comparatively higher rainfall of 60 -200 mm per year (El-Hawagry 2002, Soliman 1954).
The first orthopterist who contributed to the knowledge of Egyptian grasshoppers and locusts was Krauss (1890) who published a list of orthopteran species figured by Savigny in "Description de l'Égypte".Several taxonomic studies followed in the early twentieth century (Kneucker 1903, Werner 1905, Rehn 1912, Storey 1918).Uvarov (1924) provided the first somewhat comprehensive list of the Egyptian Orthoptera, by listing those deposited in the Egyptian Ministry of Agriculture collection.During the twentieth century, additional species were described and Egyptian locality records added to existing species on a sporadic basis (Ramme 1928;1951, Uvarov 1929;;1943b, Innes Bey 1929, Ebner 1957), often as a result of regional studies of insect faunal composition within each of Egypt's bioregions.Ebner (1957) was the last to add to the list of grasshoppers of Egypt's Western Desert, Mediterranean Coast, Gabal Elba and Northern Sinai bioregions (Hassan & Fadl 2000, El-Moursy et al. 2001).
Recent taxonomic revisions of Egyptian Acrididae contributed seven new records to the Egyptian fauna (Abdel-Dayem et al. 2005, Haggag et al. 2008, Haggag 2011).However, the overall compilation of endemic Egyptian grasshoppers is still lacking.Checklists are an essential tool for studying biodiversity and systematics (El-Hawagry 2002).This study, following on the checklist of endemic Egyptian Carabidae (Coleoptera) by Abdel-Dayem (2012), aims to compile all available data in a simple checklist designed for non-specialists.In addition, it aims to complete the missing data about Egyptian endemic and sub-endemic species and subspecies in Eades et al. (2015), the currently most important database on Orthoptera.
In addition to an updated checklist, I also provide information on distribution, activity periods, deposited specimens and simple photos of Egypt's endemic and subendemic grasshoppers.

MATERIALS Data Sources
Data for this checklist were compiled from published locality records, from specimens collected in long-term field surveys carried out by the author, or from specimens found in the Insect Reference Collection of Egypt (IRCs).Specimens were collected across Egypt's bioregions and ecological habitats between 2000 and 2010.Adults encountered on an ad hoc basis were collected using a sweep net.Localities and dates of collection were compiled to describe the distribution and activity periods of grasshoppers across Egypt's bioregions (Fig. 1, Larsen 1990).Photos of species were taken using a Nikon D5300 digital camera (Af-S zoom, Nikkor 18-55 mm 1:3.5-5.6 GII.).

Endemic species checklist
The checklist is arranged systematically to subfamily level and alphabetically thereafter.The genus, species, author, year, original citations and synonyms are listed.The locality of the type specimen and specimen depository are provided.In a few cases, specific type localities are unknown and thus 'Egypt' is given.The species distribution for each species is listed with relevant bioregions of Egypt followed by localities, and arranged alphabetically.Activity period and ecological notes are provided whenever available.Finally, discussions of the faunal status and distribution of each species are provided.

RESULTS
A total of 17 endemic and sub-endemic grasshopper species and subspecies in ten genera, seven subfamilies and four families are listed from the Egyptian fauna (Table 1 and Fig  Ecological notes.-This species is found on dry mountains, on stony gravel and bare rocks in localized populations (Dirsh 1949).Faunal Status.-Endemic Egyptian species restricted to the south of Sinai Peninsula at St. Katherine (Dirsh 1949, Ebner 1957) and also recorded from Arish in the north (Bodenheimer 1932, Haggag 2011).

DISCUSSION
Only five species and two subspecies of Caelifera are endemic (E) to Egypt, while ten sub-endemic (SE) species and subspecies are found in Egypt and its neighboring countries in North Africa and the near Middle East: Heteracris etbaica occurs in Sudan; Heteracris morbosa morbosa and Sphodromerus serapis occur in Saudi Arabia; Hyalorrhipis rhamses and Sphingonotus obscuratus obscuratus occur in Libya; Paracinipe zebrata, Sphingonotus angulatus and Sphodromerus pilipes occur in the Levant area; Poekilocerus bufonius bufonius occurs in Palestine, Jordan and northwestern Saudi Arabia (Popov 1997); Sphodromerus marmaricus occurs in Libya.
All seven endemic Egyptian grasshoppers belong to the families Acrididae and Dericorythidae and subfamilies Acridinae, Calliptaminae, Dericorythinae and Oedipodinae.Acrididae in Egypt is represented by both endemic and widespread taxa (Abdel-Dayem et al. 2005, Haggag et al. 2008, Haggag 2011).Only Duroniella cooperi is confined to the west of Egypt, while the other six endemic species and subspecies are restricted to the east of Egypt, mostly in the northeastern part.Only Sphingonotus balteatus latifasciatus occurs in Gabal Elba at the most southeast corner of Egypt.Moreover, four out of the seven endemic species and subspecies occur in the Sinai Peninsula or around the Gulf of Suez to the west of Sinai.
This study represents the second investigation of the Egyptian endemic species and subspecies, after Abdel-Dayem (2012).The grasshoppers contain a comparatively low number of endemic taxa (five species and two subspecies, approximately 6.5% of Egyptian Caelifera), compared with the 39 endemic ground beetle species and subspecies (about 16% of Egyptian Carabidae; Abdel-Dayem 2012).This might result from the fact that grasshoppers are highly mobile, while ground beetles are often flightless with reduced mobility which leads to increased endemism.
None of the endemic or sub-endemic species and subspecies was recorded from the Upper Nile area, while 16 species (about 90% of species) were found in the Sinai Peninsula or near the Gulf of Suez (Table 1 & Fig. 2).Consequently, Sinai Peninsula (particularly southern Sinai) and the Eastern Desert (particularly Ischemic Desert near the Gulf of Suez), constitute the center of Egyptian grasshopper endemism, with the highest diversity of endemic grasshoppers of the regions.Sub-endemic caeliferan distribution shows a sharp separation between Palaearctic and Afrotropical regions, where only Heteracris etbaica occurs in both.
Besides a few comprehensive works which cover all African species (Johnston 1956;1968, Dirsh, 1965)), there is no updated Orthoptera checklist for Egypt.Recent studies have focused only on Acrididae (Abdel-Dayem et al. 2005, Haggag et al. 2008, Haggag 2011).Discrepancies between the findings presented in this work and those in the Orthoptera Species File Online (OSF; Eades et al. 2015), the most comprehensive global database for Orthoptera, illustrate the need for taxonomic and biogeographic work focusing on North Africa and the Middle East.OSF lists 12 endemic Egyptian Caelifera and only four sub-endemic taxa for Egypt, half of which are not true endemics.The endemic species Crinita nigripes and its type locality (Sinai) are missing altogether.Additional errors in the distribution records of Paracinipe zebrata, Sphingonotus angulatus, and Helioscirtus gravesi illustrate the need to focus more research on the caeliferan fauna of Egypt.
In addition to shedding light on the need for focused study on Egyptian fauna, I hope that the results of this study can also be used by conservation practitioners in their decision-making.

Table 1 :
Species checklist of Egyptian endemic and sub-endemic species and subspecies.Legend: CS: Coastal strip; DLN: Delta and Lower Nile Valley; E: Endemic species or subspecies; ED: Eastern Desert; F: Fayoum Basin; GE: Gabal Elba; UN: Upper Nile Valley; SE: Sub-endemic species or subspecies; SP: Sinai Peninsula; WD: Western Desert; + indicates presence of the species; ↓ indicates country of original description, if not Egypt.