Short Communication Journal of Orthoptera Research 2022, 31(2): 119-124 First record of Sanaa regalis (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae) from the central Himalayas SAJAN K.C.!, ANISHA SAPKOTA2 1 Pokhara, Kaski, Gandaki Province, Nepal. 2 Agriculture and Forestry University, Rampur, Chitwan, Bagmati Province, Nepal. Corresponding author: Sajan K.C. (Sajankc143 @gmail.com) Academic editor: Klaus-Gerhard Heller | Received 7 February 2022 | Accepted 28 February 2022 | Published 22 July 2022 https://zoobank.org/73 BCFBA6-821 4-4232-A966-GDCG6BC36F8D8 Citation: KC Sagan, Sapkota A (2022) First record of Sanaa regalis (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae) from the central Himalayas. Journal of Orthoptera Research 31(2): 119-124. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.31.81760 Abstract A female individual of Sanaa regalis (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1895) was collected in the Tanahun district of Central Nepal in September 2021. This katydid had been reported prior from India in the East Himalayas and Chhattisgarh in Central India. This is the first record of this species from the Central Himalayas, Nepal. The female of this species differs from its congenerics S. imperialis (White, 1846) and S. intermedia Beier, 1944 in its ovipositor being distinctly black at the base. Keywords grasshopper, katydid, Nepal, new distribution, new record, Sanaa imperialis, Sanaa intermedia Introduction Nepal lies in the middle of the Himalayas, with the eastern end in the Eastern Himalayas near Sikkim, the western end in the Western Himalayas near Uttarakhand, and most of the country in the Central Himalayas. The study of the Tettigoniidae fauna of Nepal dates back to Walker (1869) when he described Incertana concinna (Walker, 1869), which was presented to him by Maj. Gen. Thomas Hardwicke. Later, Ragge (1961) reported Ducetia japonica (Thunberg, 1815) from Pokhara based on a male specimen collected in 1954. Beier (1962) cited Sanaa imperialis (White, 1846) from Nepal. Five more species were recorded by Chopard and Dreux (1966): Conocephalus (Anisoptera) fuscus (Fabricius, 1793), Mecopoda elongata (Linnaeus, 1758), Himertula kinneari (Uvarov, 1924), Letana recticercis Chopard & Dreux, 1966 and Dreuxia incerta Chopard & Dreux, 1966, followed by Bey- Bienko (1968) who added one more species i.e., Macroteratura (Stenoteratura) janetscheki (Bey-Bienko, 1968) from East Nepal. Following this, most of the studies have been done by Ingrisch (1987, 1990a, 1990b, 2001, 2002, 2006), Ingrisch and Garai (2001), and Ingrisch and Shishodia (1998). A few other species are listed in Liu and Xia (1992), Kevan and Jin (1993), Joshi and Manandhar (2001), Shishodia et al. (2010), and most recently in Jin et al. (2020), describing Macroteratura (Stenoteratura) twinsloba Liu, 2020 based on a male holotype at Bishop Museum, Honolulu, USA collected in 1966 from Kathmandu. Joshi and Manandhar (2001) reported a genus named Scuddrina (possibly a typo for Scudderia Stal, 1873) with limited evidence. Scudderia is a New World genus, and its occurrence in Nepal is very unlikely. The referred specimen (Orth. 69) may be somewhere in their collection, but there is doubt as to whether it is Scudderia. So far, the most recent comprehensive list of Tettigoniidae reported from Nepal is in Ingrisch (2006), with 45 fully identified species plus 6 species identified to genus level only. The Orthoptera Species File lists 40 species of Tettigoniidae recorded from Nepal (Cigliano et al. 2022). This list, however, omits several valid taxa included in Ingrisch (2006): Conocephalus (Chloroxiphidion) laetus (Redtenbacher, 1891), Conocephalus (Anisoptera) fuscus (Fabricius, 1793) (reported as Conocephalus (Xiphidion) discolor), Conocephalus (Anisoptera) melaenus (Haan, 1843), Euconocephalus pallidus (Redtenbacher, 1891), Xiphidiopsis (X.) lita Hebard, 1922, and Holochlora japonica Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878. It also omits some taxa reported by Shishodia (2006, 2007) and Shishodia et al. (2010): Orthelimaea securigera (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878), Sanaa imperialis (originally reported by Beier 1962), and Tegra viridivitta (Walker, 1870), and two more by Joshi and Manandhar (2001): Isopsera pedunculata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1878 and Phaneroptera (Phaneroptera) myllocerca Ragge, 1956. The last two reported by Joshi and Manandhar (2001) were also omitted by Ingrisch (2006), but Ingrisch (2006) never referenced the aforementioned literature. After examination of the relevant literature, the number of Tettigoniidae recorded from Nepal seems to be around 55. That being said, an updated checklist is required. Sanaa regalis is a colorful katydid described originally from Sikkim and later reported from Darjeeling, Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, and Arunanchal Pradesh in the East Himalayas (Ingrisch 2002, Barman 2003, Gogoi et al. 2015) and Raipur, Chhattisgarh in Central India (Gupta and Chandra 2018). It can be recognized by the four large greenish yellow maculae on its brown tegmina. There are several black blemishes on the brown part of the tegmina, and numerous bluish streaks on a black background JOURNAL OF ORTHOPTERA RESEARCH 2022, 31(2) 120 on the hindwings. The hindwings are spotted anteriorly. The pronotum is greenish yellow, and the rest of the body is mostly black with tinges of brown in some parts. The subgenital plate of the male is black, while the ovipositor of the female is black at its base (Beier 1962, Barman 2003, Cigliano et al. 2022). Here, we report the first record of this species from the Central Himalayas in Nepal. Methods The individual was seen by the first author as a chance encoun- ter on a rural road in Shuklagandaki Municipality in the Tanahun district of Central Nepal (Fig. 7). In the field, this unique-looking Tettigoniidae could only be identified as a female Pseudophylli- nae. The individual was handpicked, stored in a perforated vial, 7. SAJAN K.C. AND A. SAPKOTA and brought to Pokhara alive for further study. Photographs of the live individual were then taken (Figs 1, 2) using a Canon 7D mark II with 100 mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. For further identifica- tion, the individual was euthanized using ethyl acetate, and the specimen was taken to Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Chitwan. It was pinned and spread, and photographs of differ- ent parts were taken (Figs 3-6) with the same setup as above. The location and altitude of the collection locality were determined using Google Maps, and a map of the study area was created us- ing ArcMap 10.4. The specimen is deposited at Annapurna Natural History Museum, Pokhara. Identification was done using Beier (1962), Barman (2003), and the Orthoptera Species File (Cigliano et al. 2022). The identi- fication was confirmed by Dr. Sigfrid Ingrisch (Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Germany). 4 ad Fig. 1. Female individual of S. regalis from Tanahun. Photograph taken in Pokhara on 21 Sept. 2021 on a Tagetes L. plant. Fig. 2. Female individual of S. regalis from Tanahun showing the front and ventral sides of the head. JOURNAL OF ORTHOPTERA RESEARCH 2022, 31(2) S. K.C. AND A. SAPKOTA 121 Fig. 4. Habitus (ventral). JOURNAL OF ORTHOPTERA RESEARCH 2022, 31(2) 122 SAJAN K.C. AND A. SAPKOTA Fig. 5. Ovipositor of the female S. regalis showing its distinctly black base. Fig. 6. Habitus (lateral). JOURNAL OF ORTHOPTERA RESEARCH 2022, 31(2) S. K.C. AND A. SAPKOTA Legend & = =©6Discovery Spot Discovery Area Huma =~ 123 Tanahu Map of Tanahun India Parchull ain f # ry F dee) j Aatagithore Bau Ms ‘i a Spe at ae or se f Dadélshurs peti.” Kalikot_ ak Dolpa z China a : ji sa Bay Ais ey wt ia Ay Mus tang { Kanchanpur i Dailekhlajarkot— teeta © f A iii, , i Kallis Tae fal Rukum 9 pers Pcs HG Surkhet “7 ah Madd oo | s serie 3 f eee : Bile _Salyen p Rolpa Baglung.. re Kaski / fa hat (Berke ~~ eythan. cuit Sanaa ung! od "Pesuws