Resolving a century-old case of generic mistaken identity: polyphyly of Chitoniscus sensu lato resolved with the description of the endemic New Caledonia Trolicaphyllium gen. nov. (Phasmatodea, Phylliidae)

By

Cumming, Royce
Le Tirant, Stéphane
Büscher, Thies H. (Thies Henning)

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2021

Original Publication

ZooKeys

Volume

1055

Pages

1--41

Subjects

Camouflage , Drehu , Grande Terre , Ile de Bélep , L’Île-des-Pins , Lifou , Lifu , Maré , mimicry , new combination , Phasmida , Tiga , walking leaf

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia, Bulgaria Pensoft Publishers

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1055.66796

 

Abstract

With every molecular review involving Chitoniscus Stål, 1875 sensu lato samples from Fiji and New Caledonia revealing polyphyly, the morphology from these two distinct clades was extensively reviewed. Morphological results agree with all previously published molecular studies and therefore Trolicaphylliumgen. nov. is erected to accommodate the former Chitoniscus sensu lato species restricted to New Caledonia, leaving the type species Chitoniscus lobiventris (Blanchard, 1853) and all other Fijian species within Chitoniscus sensu stricto. Erection of this new genus for the New Caledonian species warrants the following new combinations: Trolicaphyllium brachysoma (Sharp, 1898), comb. nov., Trolicaphyllium erosus (Redtenbachher, 1906), comb. nov., and Trolicaphyllium sarrameaense (Größer, 2008a), comb. nov. Morphological details of the female, male, freshly hatched nymph, and egg are illustrated and discussed alongside the Chitoniscus sensu stricto in order to differentiate these two clades which have been mistaken as one for decades.