Eurycorypha Stal 1873

Eurycorypha Stål, 1873

http://lsid.speciesfile.org/urn:lsid: Orthoptera.speciesfile.org:TaxonName:12444

With 52 currently recognized species, and 2 additional ones described below, Eurycorypha is the largest genus of African Phaneropterinae and, without a doubt, more species still remain to be discovered. The work by C. Hemp and her colleagues (Hemp 2017c; Hemp et al. 2013) demonstrates an extensive radiation within Eurycorypha in East Africa and similar richness of species might be expected in southern Africa, where this genus has not yet been systematically studied.

All members of the genus exhibit similar, fairly uniform appearance. They are medium-sized, non-descript, fully winged, usually uniformly green katydids. They can be distinguished from other African Phaneropterinae by the combination of oval and elongate eyes, very wide fastigia of vertex and frons, conspicuous frontogenal carinae, and bilaterally open tympana. Males of Eurycorypha spp. frequently display species-specific modifications of the 10 th tergite and cerci, and their bioacoustic characters are also informative in species identification.

Little is known about the biology of most species but the majority of them appear to be arboreal and showing preference for feeding on leaves of individual tree species, albeit they do not seem to be monophagous (Hemp et al. 2013). Nymphs of at least some species exhibit a remarkable ant mimicry during the first 2 or 3 instars, often mimicking individual genera of ants, such as Camponotus Mayr, 1861 and Polyrhachis Smith, 1857 (Fig. 5H). These nymphs can be seen feeding on plants during the day, surrounded by and ignored by their presumed models, and showing a similar pattern of movement and behavior. It is possible that young nymphs of Eurycorypha are able to mimic their ant models chemically as well in order to avoid being harassed by these insects, albeit it is worth to note that the model ant species are invariably herbivorous rather than predaceous or omnivorous ones.