New records and a checklist of the Acridomorpha of the Aures, East Algeria (Orthoptera: Caelifera)

ABSTRACT

A checklist of the Acridomorpha fauna of the Aures region in Algeria has been established using a combination of the available literature and new collections carried out from 2018 to 2021. This list is the first for the region and includes 61 species belonging to 35 genera and four families: Acrididae (25 genera, 44 species), Dericorythidae (1 genus, 1 species), Pamphagidae (8 genera, 14 species) and Pyrgomorphidae (1 genus, 2 species). The new data indicate that the subfamily Oedipodinae of the family Acrididae is dominant (34.43%), while the genus Sphingonotus comprises the largest number of species (6 species). Twenty eight species have been recorded for the first time in this region, including Stenobothrus palpalis and a species closely resembling Gomphocerippus atlasi, which are new records for the Algerian fauna. The presence of three species was confirmed in the region. The work provides a list of species, information on their geographical distribution and insight into various synusial assemblages. Nevertheless, despite four years of survey efforts during several trips around the region, the list of species provided here is not exhaustive, rather only preliminary.

KEYWORDS:

• Grasshopper
• Stenobothrus palpalis
• faunistics
• survey
• mountains
• habitat

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the anonymous reviewers and editors for critical reviews and valuable comments on previous versions of the manuscript. We thank Dr. Rachida Hafayed for his help in making the sampling localities maps.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).