Unknown population of genus Moncheca?
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For long, one key feature to distinguish two very similar and overlap distributing Moncheca species M. elegans and M. pretiosa are the difference of light color stripe on the pronotum. M. elegans has one while M. pretiosa has two light color stripes.
Typical M. elegans observed by jaspersail
Typical M. pretiosa observed by pavelkirillov
But there are a special phenotype of Moncheca, which does not have obvious light color stripes on pronotum as normal M.elegans and M. pretiosa , and replace by dark color. Some of the individuals are IDed as M. pretiosa because the similarity and more obvious color stripes but most of them remain genus because this characteristic are unrecognizable or even absent.
Untypical Moncheca IDed as M. pretiosa, observed by birdernaturalist
Another untypical Moncheca observed by rbeunen
Coincidentally I found that all those individuals distribute in an area including middle and southern Peru and nothern Bolivia along Andes, and have geographical isolation with ordinary M. pretiosa. This could indicate that those individuals possibly represent a regional population. But what taxon could it be? A regional phenotype of M. pretiosa? A subspecies? Or even new species? Moncheca from that area need further research.
Thanks to all observers and your nice photos!
@jaspersail @pavelkirillov @birdernaturalist @rbeunen
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Interesting. I wonder what it means. I don't look at South America so I won't be the one to figure it out. Naskrecki's Katydids of Costa Rica includes the following under Moncheca: "Specimens from Peru mentioned by Hebard (1927) as having much darker coloration are also distinct from the two species known from Costa Rica, and possibly represent another undescribed species."
The citation to the Hebard paper is:
Hebard. 1927. Studies in the Tettigoniidae of Panama. Transactions of the American Entomological Society. 53: 79 - 156.
Very useful information. But to validify it, key characteristics need to be checked.
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