Odontura stenoxypha

Odontura stenoxypha (Fieber, 1853)

Fieber, 1853, Lotos, 3: 187 (Barbitistes stenoxypha); type locality: Sicily (Italy); depository: NHM, Vienna (holotype ♀).

Messina, 1981, Animalia, 8: 19; type locality: Egadi Is, north Sicily; depository: AMUC (syntypes ♂ and ♀, lost?).

Material examined. Sicily, Ficuzza, ex Fieber (♀, probable holotypus, ♀ syntypus); Sicily, Palermo, Mt. Pellegrino 10.IV.1913 (2♂) (NHM); Sicily, Taormina, Krauss (2♂, 2♀) (MNCN); Sicily, Palermo, Mt. Pellegrino 10.IV.1913 (1♂) (MNHP); Sicily, Lentini surroundings 5.IV.1961, A. Servadei (1♂); Sicily, Egadi Is., Favignana 3.IV.1990, B. Baccetti (6♂, 3♀); Sicily, Egadi Is., Favignana 27.IV.1991, B. Baccetti (5♂); Sicily, Egadi Is., Favignana, Mt. S. Caterina, 3.IV.1990, B. Baccetti (3♂); Sicily, Egadi Is., Levanzo, Tramontana 3.V.1991, B. Baccetti (2♂ 1♀); Sicily, Egadi Is., Levanzo, Fossa 3.V.1991, B. Baccetti (1♂) (MSNG); Sicily, Egadi Is., Levanzo 1.V.1979, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Egadi Is., Favignana 11.V.1997, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Egadi Is., Marettimo 12.IV.1974, B. Massa (2♂); Sicily, Saline Trapani 19.III.1997, S. Pasta (1♂); Sicily, Lake Trinità (Trapani) 19.V.1974, R. Falcetta (1♀); Sicily, Nature Reserve Zingaro (Trapani) 21.IV.1996, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Mt. Cofano (Trapani) 15.IV.1991, F. Lo Valvo (1♂); Sicily, Is. Lunga (Trapani) 29.V.1992, F. Lo Valvo (1♀); Sicily, Madonie Mts., 8.VI.1965, Novinsky (1♂); Sicily, Madonie Mts., Collesano, loc. Volpignano 5.VI.1974, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Madonie Mts., Piano Cervi 29.V.1996 (nymph, ad.: 10.VII.1996), B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Madonie Mts., Quacella 12.VI.1974, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Madonie Mts., Cozzo Luminario 3.VII.2020, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Nebrodi Mts., San Fratello 18.VI.1978, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Mt. Pellegrino (Palermo) 3.III.2012, C. Cusimano (1♂); Sicily, Bellolampo (Palermo) 14.VI.1968, R. Mignani (2♀); Sicily, Pioppo (Palermo) 7.XII.1995 (nymph, ad.: 15.III.1996), E. Balsano (3♀); Sicily, Giacalone (Palermo) 21.V.2001, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Piana degli Albanesi (Palermo) 28.V.2000, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Ficuzza (Palermo) 21.V.1996, B. Massa (2♂, 4♀); 26.V.1996, B. Massa (2♂, 1♀); Sicily, Balestrate (Palermo) 8.V.2000, S. Blando (1♀); Sicily, Isola delle Femmine (isolotto) 14.V.2002, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Menfi, loc. Capparrina 17.IV.2010, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Menfi (Agrigento) 17.VI.2010, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Santo Stefano di Quisquina, bosco Buonanotte (Agrigento) 18.V.1993, B. Massa (1♂); 21.V.1997, B. Massa (1♀); Sicily, Gela, loc. Manfria (Caltanissetta) 26.IV.1975, B. Massa (1♂); Sicily, Milena (Caltanissetta) 2.VI.2003, T. La Mantia (1♀) (BMPC); Malta, Ghadira saltmarsh VII.1974, A. Valletta (1♂) (LCPC).

Remarks. Fieber (1853) described O. stenoxypha only from a female specimen; the following is the original description (translated from German): “Greenish. Vertex finely pointed, with 5 bright lines, sulcate with 2 swellings. Pronotum short, nearly angular. Lateral lobes trapezoidal, posteriorly enlarged, angles continuous with the posterior arched margin, margins with one brown line. Abdomen with 3 lines of black dots. ♀. Supragenital plate triangular. Subgenital plate transversally triangular. Ovipositor sabre-like. Tip narrow, with big brown spines, and with spines and teeth on its sides”. However, it ought to be pointed out that this description is common to all the species of the genus Odontura, and, in the opinion of the present authors, only fresh material can resolve this issue, essentially, to allow the taxon to be carefully examined and, if deemed necessary, re-described. A male and a female Odontura stenoxypha are illustrated, respectively, in Figures 6a and 6b; when alive, they display particular colours, but tend to lose the relative splendour of their natural coloration once the specimens are mounted and dried. The female, in particular, may or may not have longitudinal lines along the pronotum, and only brown dots on abdominal tergite, as indicated by Fieber (1853). The cerci of Odontura stenoxypha are apically incurved, quite abruptly (Figure 1f). Tegmina of the female are well overlapped.

Fieber (1853) indicated “ Sicily ” as type locality. Because Fischer (1853) reported Barbitistes pyrenaea from Sardinia, stating “Prof. Zeller ♂ et ♀ mensibus Aprili et Majo circa Syracusas reperit et mecum at examinandum communicavit”, Messina (1981) assumed that the locality from which the female described by Fieber was collected had in fact been the south-eastern area of Sicily, and went on to describe yet another species living in the northern part of the island and the Egadi Is., namely, Odontura arcuata. Messina (1981) described this new species on the basis of the hetero-chromosomes, in particular, the different position of the centromere in the X chromosome in O. arcuata and O. stenoxypha (see Alicata et al. 1974) and, furthermore, suggested that no morphological differences effectively existed between the two taxa. However, Messina (1981) only limited himself to report some drawings of cerci and subgenital plates of males, showing the high variability of the taxon. In view of the fact that Harz (1969) indicated the Naturhistorisches Museum of Vienna as depository of the type, Llorente & Pinedo (1990), in an attempt to verify such claim, were informed that two females were preserved in the Vienna Museum collections, one of which carried a label ‘Ficuzza Sicil., Krüger’ and presumed that this specimen may well be the holotype of the species (the said specimen was also examined by one of the authors [BM]). Incidentally, Ficuzza (Palermo) is also among the localities reported by Messina (1981) for O. arcuata.

Meanwhile, Warchalowska-Sliva et al. (2011) examined some specimens collected in Sicily, identifying them as O. stenoxypha (from Eraclea Minoa, southern Sicily) and O. arcuata (from Segesta, northern Sicily, and Selinunte, south-western Sicily). It is presumed by the present authors that the specimens were identified on the basis of the collecting localities, because the key published by Llorente & Pinedo (1990) does not cite O. arcuata. Subsequently, some of the original authors revisited their work on these specimens and proposed that they belong to two subspecies, namely Odontura stenoxypha stenoxypha and Odontura stenoxypha arcuata (Grzywacz et al. 2013). In reality, Grzywacz et al. (2013) did not find any genetic divergence among the specimens examined; furthermore, they confirmed the same bioacoustics pattern among the two groups and concluded: “Despite differences in the fundamental number and in the X chromosomes between O. s. stenoxypha and O. s. arcuata, it should be noted that we found similar-sized chromosomal differences within other Odontura species ”. Clearly, there are no evident differences between the two taxa, nor is there an apparent and defined distribution between the two taxa; thus, it is being proposed that O. arcuata Messina, 1981 is considered a junior synonym of O. stenoxypha (Fieber, 1853).

Distribution. There appears to be some confusion on the distribution of O. stenoxypha, most likely resulting from misidentifications. This species has been reported from Majorca (Balearics), Tunisia, Sardinia, Sicily and Malta (Dubrony 1879, Brunner von Wattenwyl 1882, Riggio & Pajno 1887, Baccetti 1964, Harz 1969, Messina 1981, Schembri & Ebejer 1983, Cassar 1990, Llorente & Pinedo 1990, Cassar et al. 2020). The reported presence in Sardinia is certainly due to the misidentification of O. calaritana and the reported presence in Tunisia to the misidentification of O. algerica or O. martae sp. nov. (see above).The cerci of a male named O. stenoxypha belonging to a Tunisian specimen, illustrated in Llorente & Pinedo (1990), are dissimilar to those of Sicilian specimens. However, they do bear some similarity with the cerci of specimens collected from the island of Lampedusa that the present authors consider an undescribed species (see above). Concerning the single specimen (adult ♀) collected on Majorca, Balearics (Llorente & Pinedo 1990), given its sex, it would not be possible to confirm its identity to species level with any certainty, since a male would be required for such verification (see also O. calaritana); however, its tegmina are not overlapped (MNCN specimen examined by one of the authors [BM]) and this, as a consequence, excludes O. stenoxypha. In view of the foregoing, the authors presently consider O. stenoxypha to be endemic to Sicily and Malta.

Phenology. O. stenoxypha has a spring-summer phenology, with nymphs typically active during warm winter days (December and January), and first adults appearing around late March to early April in low altitudes, and in June at higher altitude, with the last adult individuals of the generation still present in July.