A Taxonomic Study On The Genus Diestrammena (Orthoptera: Rhaphidophoridae: Aemodogryllinae) Of China

Rhaphidophoridae is one of the small family in Orthoptera, they occupy a wide variety of habitats and have a wide range of food-habits. They are essentially carnivorous (insect feeder), but some groups have become evolved as mycophagous, coprophagous, coprophagous, carpophagous and so on. Some species have adapted to a parasitism of mammals. Their prosperity is inevitably causing direct interaction between them and mankind.Diestrammena is one of the largest genera of the subfamily Aemodogryllinae in the family Rhaphidophoridae. It was established by Brunner von Wattenwyl in 1888. Brunner von Wattenwyl (1888) designated Locusta marmorata Haan as the type species for the genus. Up to the present 63 species of the genus have been known from the world (Eades et al,2009). They are mainly distributed in the Palaearctic and Oriental Region. There are 31 species known in China.In China, however, taxonomic study on this genus is relatively behind and only some of scholars separately studied on this field. Up to the present, systematic works concerning Chinese Diestrammena has not been made, All the Chinese known species were described by foreign scholars and the type specimens were deposited in foreign countries. For these reasons, it became difficulty for us to study Chinese Diestrammena fauna.This study was based on the examinations of over 80 specimens, which were collected from a lot of places in China such as Zhejiang, ningxia, Hubei, Guangxi, Yunnan, Hunan, Beijing, Shanghai,and so on. The results of my research is summarized as follows:1. This paper was the first systematic study of the genus Diestrammena of China.2. In the present paper,43 Chinese species of the genus were recognized.3. All the species were described in detail, and their sexual characters were illustrated. The color photos for every species were also provided. The history review, collecting techniques, and major diagnostic characters of the genus were discussed.4. The keys to the subgenera and the species of the genus were presented.5. A catalog of the genus Diestrammena of world was given.