NOTES ON THE PHASMATODEA OF THE WEST INDIES: TWO NEW GENERA*

zV-lizards

swelling of the notum concave in the middle and expanded laterally into strong spines.Mesosternum granulose and laterally spinose.Metathorax transverse, rectangular.Median segment about 0.8 times the length of metanotum.Abdominal segments transverse, segments II-VII laterally expanded into spinose lobes, VIII-X narrower than the preceding.Supraanal plate small, triangular.Cerci short, slightly curved.Sternite VII with a postero-median praeopercular organ ; subgenital plate elongate, extending beyond the apex of the abdomen, acuminate apically.
Legs elongate and slender.Anterior femora straight basally.Four posterior tibiae anareolate.First tarsomere slightly longer than the next two together.Tegmina and wings absent.
Male: Unknown.Type species: Taraxippus pciliurus Moxey, new species.Distribution : This genus is known only from the type locality in the northwestern part of Haiti.
Derivation of name: Taraxippus, the horse-scarer, was the name given to the ghost of Glaucus.
The state of the suprageneric classification of the phasmatids is in such chaos that it is extremely difficult to place this remarkable genus in the present scheme.At first glance, it would appear to belong to the pygirhynchine genus Mirophasma Redtenbacher (1906), but it can readily be excluded from this group on the basis of its anareolate tibiae and the relatively large median segment.It would thus seem to belong to the Phibalosomatinae, being somewhat related to Lamponius Stal (1875), from which it may be distinguished by its basally straight anterior femora and the elongate first tarsomere.It is unfortunate that the male of Taraxippus is not known, for it would help to resolve its relationships; I have some reservations about describing it at all from a single specimen, but it is so interesting, that I feel more is to be gained by placing a name in print than bv not.

Psyche
[March-June Mirophasma ?cirsium Redtenbacher (1906) 2 (Figures 1 and 4) form a stunning convergent complex.In all three, the body and legs have become extremely spiny, the vertex of the head and the mesonotum swollen, and abdominal segment VII of the female laterally expanded.The color in life is either green or a mottled green and brown.The habitat of Mirophasma is unknown, but from the altitude of capture (2200 m) and its overall appearance, I would assume that it, like the Taraxippus and Lamponius species, inhabits wet mossy forest, where the spinosity and green color would provide excellent camouflage from a predator.
Taraxippus paliurus new species (Figures 2 and 5) Type locality: High mountains near St. Louis du Nord, Haiti.Color light green in life, light reddish brown preserved.Acanthotaxy 3 : Head with supra-antennal, supra-orbital, lateral and medial coronal spines; a pair of median spines is situated just anterior to the well-developed occipital median spines; scape with a single spine.Pronotum with anterior, posterior, and postero-lateral pronotal spines present; mesonotum with the anterior mesal, premedian, post-median, posterior, inter-posterior, and lateral mesonotal spines; anterior and medio-lateral metanotal spines present, medially there is a pair of strong compound spines; mesopleura with lateral, supra-coxal and mesopleural spines; metasternum with a pair of antero-lateral spines; metapleura with lateral, supra-coxal, and metapleural spines; medial spines of median segment strong, anterior and posterior spines reduced.Abdominal tergites II-VII with anterior, medial, lateral, and full posterior series of spines; VIII with anterior and postero-lateral spines, full posterior series robust; IX with the anterior and second paired posterior spines strongly reduced, first paired posterior and postero-lateral spines present; X with the typical complement of spines, although the second paired posteriors are reduced; abdominal sternites II-VI with two paired lateral and two paired medial spines; VII with three paired lateral spines.All femora and tibae armed with thorn-like spines.
Holotype: A female, pinned.High Mts.near St. Louis du Nord.
2 My specimen of this species, from the locality of Alta de los Cruces, Colombia, 2/10, 2200 m (MCZ), agrees well witth Redtenbacherâ€™s description, except for its much larger size (55 mm as opposed to 25 mm for his specimen).Either my specimen represents a closely related new species, or his specimen was immature.
3 As used by Rehn & Rehn (1939) on the Obriminae of the Philippines.

Measurements of type: Length
Genus Agamemnon new genus Body form elongate and slender; surface rugose or granulate.Head elongate, rectangular, with a pair of tubercles or spines between the eyes.Antennae longer than the anterior legs; scape depressed; pedicel subconical.Compound eyes small, but prominent; ocelli absent.Pronotum elongate, rectangular; defensive gland opening present.Prosternum transverse, lyriform.Mesothorax elongate, cylindrical in the male, slightly narrowed anteriorly in the female; notum of female medially carinate.Metathorax elongate, rectangular, cylindrical in the male; notum medially carinate in the female.Median segment about O.5-0.7 times the length of the metanotum.
Abdomen cylindrical in the male, segments II-VIII elongate, IX quadrate, X transverse, rounded posteriorly; abdomen broader in the female, segments II-VII subquadrate, VIII-X narrower than the preceding.Supraanal plate of female prominent, elongate.Cerci short, curved in male, straight in female.Vomer of male triangular, with a short sclerotized tip ; subgenital plate fornicate, apex rounded ; genitalia with a dextral sclerotized â€oehook.â€•Sternite VII of female with a highly specialized postero-median praeopercular organ ; subgenital plate elongate, exceeding the end of the abdomen, apex rounded.
Legs elongate and slender.Anterior femora strongly curved basally.Four posterior tibiae anareolate.First tarsomere longer than the second, but not longer than the next two together.Tegmina and wings absent.
Type species: Agamemnon iphimedeia Moxey, new species.This genus is most closely related to Ocnophila Brunner (1907), from which it may easily be distinguished as follows: Ocnophila 1.First tarsomere of hind tarsi longer than the next two together (Figure 21) 2. Median segment less than O.40 times the length of metanotum 3. Supraanal plate of female small, not elongate (Figure 26) 4. Praeopercular organ of female unspecialized 5. Subgenital plate of female barely exceeding the end of the abdomen (Figure 26) 6. Abdominal segment X of male with a median projection posteriorly Distribution: The genus is known only from the West Indies, with the type species, A. iphimedeia from eastern Puerto Rico and a second species, described by Saussure (1868) as Pygirhynchus thomae ^ from St. Thomas, and herein recorded from western Puerto Rico.The females of these two species may be distinguished : 1. Supraanal plate subquadrate, broadly rounded and with a median notch apically, shorter than abdominal segment X ; mesonotum more than three times the length of the metanotum; anterior femora shorter than the posterior .... A. iphimedeia new species, i'.Supraanal plate lanceolate, longer than abdominal segment X; mesonotum less than three times the length of the metanotum ; anterior femora longer than the posterior A. thomae (Saussure). 1.
2 .Color dark reddish brown to black.Female: Elongate.Head with a pair of tubercles between the eyes, vertex tuberculate (Figures 15 and 16) ; first seven antennal flagellomeres not as decidedly elongate as in the male.Pronotum with a pair of tubercles on the anterior, a pair of stubby spines on the posterior margin; the posterior spines may occasionally become enlarged (Figure 16).Abdominal segment VII depressed, VIII slightly narrowed posteriorly, IX transverse and narrowing, X subquadrate, slightly narrowed ; supraanal plate subquadrate, broadly rounded and notched apically; abdominal sternite VII with the lateral carinae terminating in a blunt, posteriorly directed spine, behind which sometimes is another smaller one (Figure 29).Subgenital plate with a median carina in the apical two-thirds; ovipositor valves crossed (Figure 31).Femora and tibiae with the margins subdentate.
Male: Elongate, cylindrical.Head with a pair of strong spines between the eyes, vertex tuberculate (Figure 13); first seven antennal flagellomers each very elongate, the remaining shorter, lighter colored.Pronotum with a pair of large tubercles on the anterior margin and a pair of large, anteriorly curved spines on the posterior margin (Figure 13).Mesonotum granulose, the granules being numerous anteriorly.Subgenital plate strongly fornicate, with a median longitudinal carina and a transverse V-shaped ridge (Figures 22 and 27).Genitalia only slightly chitinized, with an irregularly lobed basal mass displaced somewhat dextrad, and with a strongly chitinized dextral hook (Figure 28).Anterior coxae with a lateral spine; femora and tibiae with the margins subdentate.
Penultimate nymphal instar: Female â€" similar to the adult, but the antennae are shorter, the abdomen tapers gradually apically, and the subgenital plate reaches only to the middle of segment X. Length 55 mm.(Figures 34 and 35).
Cytogenetics: Virkki (1970) reported the karyotype of this species as 211=34 + XX; the male (Virkkiâ€™s number 180) 4 haploid number being I7 n + X.In the male, there was one pair of acrocentric, or almost acrocentric, autosomes forming a long rod bivalent and two pairs of metacentrics forming rings, the chiasmata being localized near the centromere.The other autosomes are small-to medium-sized.The X-chromosome is large and submetacentric.
Habitat: I found this species never more than two-thirds of a meter off the ground on P/^gr-shrubs in the Luquillo Forest.Lamponius portoricensis Rehn, the common species of stick-insect in the Forest, also occurs frequently on Piper but is usually found at heights of about one to two meters.
Derivation of name: Iphimedeia, a daughter of Triops, is a noun in apposition to the generic name.
Rearing: In captivity, this species can be raised on Rhododendron spp., Persea americana, and Parthenocissus tricuspidata leaves.One female was kept alive from July to December, 1969; apparently she was a virgin at the time of capture, for she never laid any eggs during the time I observed her.From the recent collecting trip, I had three living females, one of which molted from a nymph to imago.The following notes on defensive behavior derive from observations made on these four.
4 Although I have not seen this specimen (it was sent by Virkki to Klaus Gunther in Berlin), the brief description given by Gunther {in litt .)convinces me that assignment to this species is extremely probable.
5 In this discussion, I have followed the format and terminology used by Robinson (1969).
During the day, it may assume a resting attitude as shown in Figure 36, although it will also rest on the substrate (Figures 37 and 38).ii) Secondary defence â€" The insect does not display and has almost no escape behavior.It is in general unresponsive to tactile stimulation, although it may move the stimulated part of the body away from the source of the disturbance (Figure 39).After repeated pinching, it will walk away slowly, rocking moderately as it does so, and then assume a resting position again.If grasped, the insect becomes immobile, with the fore limbs protracted, and the intermediate and posterior limbs extended in the lateral plane (Figure 40) .The species will not regurgitate, and, although defensive gland openings are present on the pronotum, the gland is much reduced and probably non-functional (Figure 41).In a 70 mm specimen of A. iphhnedeicij the gland is only 2 mm long, whereas in an Anisomorpha buprestoides (Stoll) of the same length, the gland is 10 mm long (Figure 42).
Holotype  Figure 39. A. iphimedeia.Same specimen as in Figure 38, after the fore legs and antennae have been touched several times, (cfm).
Figure 40. A. iphimcdeia.Female after having been grasped and dropped, showing the extended position of the legs.(cfm).

Psyche
[March-June in a small, blunt, posteriorly directed spine; each side of praeopercular organ with an oblique, blunt spine (Figure 30).Subgenital plate longitudinally rugose and medially carinate in the distal threequarters.Margins of femora and tibiae minutely granulate, lower lateral and lower median carinae of hind four femora each with two subapical granules; posterior femora shorter than the anterior.Male: Unknown.Egg: Large, subcylindrical, surface granulate.Micropylar plate planaria-shaped, about three times longer than broad.Operculum flat.Length 3.5 mm.(Figure 33).
Habitat: The region around Aguadilla does not have any particularly high land and is considerably drier than the Luquillo rain forest.Unfortunately, on my recent collecting trip, I was unable to find this species either on St. Thomas or near Aguadilla.
My specimen agrees extremely closely with Saussureâ€™s description, except for the spines between the eyes, the somewhat shorter legs, and the absence of spines on the femora.
Measurements : Length