Uromenus innocentii

Uromenus innocentii (Finot & Bonnet in Bonnet & Finot 1885)

MOROCCO, S of Mezguitem, N 34.46791, W 003.68883, 730 m a.s.l., 03 vi 2013, leg. Chobanov.

The nightly calling song consists of echemes with 28±2 (n=15) syllables (Fig. 2; syllable period 129±4 ms; SRR 7.7 Hz). In these syllables, lasting 84±3 ms, probably only during the closing movement of the tegmina impulses (19±2) are produced (Fig. 3).

The frequency spectrum of the male song has a broad maximum around 20 kHz (Fig. 5).

The tegmina (Fig. 6F) differ in shape slightly from the other studied species. In the posterior region of the right tegmen there is a network of cells only slightly smaller than the small roundish mirror. The same pattern can be seen in the left tegmen. The male stridulatory file carries 56 teeth (Fig. 7; Tab. 2) a distinctly lower number than the other species of the genus (except U. annae). In the middle of the file the inter-tooth intervals are about 83 µm. The female stridulatory file (Fig. 9F) is less strongly developed than in the other species. In the lateral part the teeth are smaller than in the central part which itself is quite short. In the inner part there are more net-like veins mostly covered with pegs than in the other species.

Morphology. The species was described under Steropleurus and considered by Nadig (1995) forming its own group. The species has a very typical dorsal pattern of dark green, ochre to whitish, and darker (brownish-violet) spots and stripes (Fig. 1R). The occiput is black (not uncommon in Ephippigerini). Male cerci have a typical shape with a long, sinuately outcurved apical part (after the internal tooth) (Fig. 10F 1–2). We follow Barat (2017) and do not recognise subspecies in this widespread species. Our specimens differ in tooth number distinctly from Nadig’s Central Moroccan specimens (56 vs 80–90 teeth; Nadig 1994) but the type localities from both described subspecies are situated East of Morocco. The syntype of U. i. innocentii in Paris bears a label (Cigliano et al. 2021) reading „ Tunisie, Djebel Berda“, now in Algeria in the Aures Mts., while U. i. lobatus Saussure, 1898 was collected in Aïn Séfra, Algeria, in the Saharan Atlas near to the Moroccan border.

Ecology. The species occurs widely within the Mediterranean climate zone reaching even far south the Sahara desert (Hot desert climate) (Barat 2017). Our observation is from a dry ruderal habitat within the Köppen climate type BSk (Cold semi-arid) towards BWk (Cold desert) in the climatic shadow of the westwards rising Rif mountains (Verner et al. 2018).