''Pterobrimus'' is a monotypic genus of

stick insects The Phasmatodea (also known as Phasmida, Phasmatoptera or Spectra) are an order of insects whose members are variously known as stick insects, stick-bugs, walking sticks, stick animals, or bug sticks. They are also occasionally referred to as ...

(Phasmatodea), containing the species ''Pterobrimus depressus'', wich is native to

Fiji Fiji ( , ,; fj, Viti, ; Fiji Hindi: फ़िजी, ''Fijī''), officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists ...

Description

The females reach a length of . The males are long. This makes the species one of the smallest

Obrimini The Obrimini are the most species-rich tribe of the Phasmatodea family of the Heteropterygidae native to Southeast Asia. Description The Obrimini differ from their sister tribe the Hoplocloniini by the structure of the secondary ovipositor ...

along with ''

Tisamenus hebardi Tisamenus (Ancient Greek: Τισαμενός) is the name of several people in classical history and mythology: * ''Mythology'' **Tisamenus (son of Orestes), mythological king of Argos, and son of Orestes and Hermione. **Tisamenus (King of Thebes), ...

''. Morphologically, the animals resemble the representatives of the genus '' Tisamenus'', but differ among other things by the small, scaly, rudimentary elytra in both sexes. ''Pterobrimus depressus'' is the only

Obriminae The Obriminae are the most species-rich subfamily of the Phasmatodea family Heteropterygidae native to Southeast Asia. It is divided into two tribe. Taxonomy The tribe Obrimini was created by Brunner von Wattenwyl in 1893 for the genera '' Obri ...

species described with wings or wing remains, along with the fully winged ''

Miroceramia westwoodii ''Miroceramia'' is a monotypic genus of stick insects, containing ''Miroceramia westwoodii'' as the only described species. It is the only fully winged one of the subfamily Obriminae. Characteristics The species and thus also the genus differ ...

''. In common with ''Tisamenus'', ''Pterobrimus'' has large, laterally flattened spines on the front edge of the pronotum and indicated triangle on the top of the mesonotum. In addition to the pronatal spines, there are only a few spines on the head especially in males. The body shape is somewhat reminiscent of that of flat ''Tisamenus'' representatives such as '' Tisamenus deplanatus'', whose species name, like that of ''Pterobrimus depressus'', already indicates the compressed body shape. The

abdomen The abdomen (colloquially called the belly, tummy, midriff, tucky or stomach) is the part of the body between the thorax (chest) and pelvis, in humans and in other vertebrates. The abdomen is the front part of the abdominal segment of the torso. ...

of the females ends in the secondary

ovipositor The ovipositor is a tube-like organ used by some animals, especially insects, for the laying of eggs. In insects, an ovipositor consists of a maximum of three pairs of appendages. The details and morphology of the ovipositor vary, but typical ...

typical of Obrimini. This ovipositor is formed dorsally from the supraanal plate (also called

epiproct This glossary of entomology describes terms used in the formal study of insect species by entomologists. A–C A synthetic chlorinated hydrocarbon insecticide, toxic to vertebrates. Though i ...

) and is serrated at the tip, atypical for Obrimini in Pterobrimus depressus. The first segment of the antennae, the scapus, has an apical outer spine, which is otherwise only found in the representatives of the subfamily

Dataminae Datamini is the only tribe within the subfamily of the Dataminae from the order of the Phasmatodea. The representatives of this subfamily are on average not as large as those of the other two subfamilies belonging to the family of Heteropterygida ...

Distribution area

Fiji was already mentioned as a type locality by Redtenbacher in the

species description A species description is a formal description of a newly discovered species, usually in the form of a scientific paper. Its purpose is to give a clear description of a new species of organism and explain how it differs from species that have be ...

. Since this locality is far to the east of the range of the other

Heteropterygidae The Heteropterygidae is a family of stick insects belonging to the suborder Euphasmatodea. Species can be found in Australasia, East and Southeast Asia. More than 130 valid species have been described (at the end of 2020). Characteristics Siz ...

, the occurrence there and thus the type locality was occasionally questioned. A specimen collected by

Daniel Otte Daniel Otte (born 14 March 1939) is a noted behavior ecologist, a world expert on crickets and grasshoppers and a prominent scientific illustrator. He has made significant contributions to evolutionary biology. He is curator and chairman of th ...

Naitasiri Province :see also Naitasiri District Naitasiri is one of the 14 provinces of Fiji and one of eight located on Viti Levu, Fiji's largest island. Geography and infrastructure Naitasiri covers an area of , and occupies the area mostly to the north of Suva, ...

on Viti Levu finally confirmed Fiji as distribution of this species.

Taxonomy

''Pterobrimus depressus'' was described in 1906 by Redtenbacher in the genus ''Pterobrimus'', which was specially established for this species. While the species name refers to the flat, compressed body shape of the species, the genus name is a combination of "ptero" for

Ancient Greek Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...

πτερόν pterón "wing" and "Obrimus". Redtenbacher chooses this name because of the rudimentary wings and the proximity of the genus to '' Obrimus'', or more precisely to the

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide usage of the term in English language, English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in p ...

Obrimini, in which he places the species. He calls the genus a transition between ''

Heterocopus ''Heterocopus'' is a monotypic stick insect genus, containing ''Heterocopus leprosus'' as the only valid species. Description The few known specimens of the genus are medium-sized and completely wingless, hardly spined species. They are simila ...

'' and ''Tisamenus'' and described both sexes using specimens from the Zoological Museum in Hamburg. Of the specimens mentioned, a damaged male classified as syntype can be found there. A severely damaged female syntype is deposited in the

Natural History Museum in Vienna The Natural History Museum Vienna (german: Naturhistorisches Museum Wien) is a large natural history museum located in Vienna, Austria. It is one of the most important natural history museums worldwide. The NHM Vienna is one of the largest museum ...

. The affiliation of the genus to the Obrimini was doubted very early on.

James Abram Garfield Rehn James Abram Garfield Rehn (October 26, 1881 – January 25, 1965) was an American entomologist who was a specialist on the New World Orthoptera. He worked at the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, making several collection expeditions aro ...

and his son

John William Holman Rehn John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

suspect that the genus belongs to a different tribe. The tribes in question were raised in 2004 by

Oliver Zompro Oliver Zompro is a German biologist who is credited with the discovery in 2002 of a new suborder of carnivorous African insects, Mantophasmatodea or "gladiators", which was originally considered to be a new insect order but was later relegated to ...

to the status of separate subfamilies. He places the genus ''Pterobrimus'' in the tribe Eubulidini set up by him within the Obriminae.

Frank H. Hennemann Frank H. Hennemann (born 1 July 1978 in Ludwigshafen) is a German entomologist and taxonomist who works in the field of biodiversity research on the systematics and biogeography of stick insects (Phasmatodea). Biography Hennemann grew up in Ba ...

et al. synonymized this tribe and placed the genus in the tribe Tisamenini set up by them.

Sarah Bank Sarah (born Sarai) is a Patriarchs (Bible)#Matriarchs, biblical matriarch and Prophet, prophetess, a major figure in Abrahamic religions. While different Abrahamic faiths portray her differently, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all depict her ...

et al. were able to clarify the relationships within the family in a study on the spread of the Heteropterygidae based on

genetic analysis Genetic analysis is the overall process of studying and researching in fields of science that involve genetics and molecular biology. There are a number of applications that are developed from this research, and these are also considered parts of ...

. They synonymized the Tisamenini and confirmed the assignment of Redtenbacher to the Obrimini as well as the type locality he specified on the basis of more recent finds. The full-winged ''

Miroceramia ''Miroceramia'' is a monotypic genus of stick insects, containing ''Miroceramia westwoodii'' as the only described species. It is the only fully winged one of the subfamily Obriminae. Characteristics The species and thus also the genus diffe ...

'' was identified as the

sister genus In phylogenetics, a sister group or sister taxon, also called an adelphotaxon, comprises the closest relative(s) of another given unit in an evolutionary tree. Definition The expression is most easily illustrated by a cladogram: Taxon A and t ...

. Both genera together form a sister

clade A clade (), also known as a monophyletic group or natural group, is a group of organisms that are monophyletic – that is, composed of a common ancestor and all its lineal descendants – on a phylogenetic tree. Rather than the English term, ...

to all other Obrimini. The genus ''Tisamenus'' mentioned by Redtenbacher is also closely related. The monotypic genus ''Heterocopus'' was not part of this study.

References

Brock, P. D.; Büscher, T. H. & Baker, E. W.
Phasmida Species File Online
'. Version 5.0. (accessdate 05 February 2023) Redtenbacher, J. (1906).
Die Insektenfamilie der Phasmiden. Vol. 1. Phasmidae Areolatae
'. Verlag Wilhelm Engelmann, Leipzig, p. 43 Hennemann, F. H.; Conle, O. V.; Brock, P. D. & Seow-Choen, F. (2016). Revision of the Oriental subfamiliy Heteropteryginae Kirby, 1896, with a re-arrangement of the family Heteropterygidae and the descriptions of five new species of Haaniella Kirby, 1904. (Phasmatodea: Areolatae: Heteropterygidae), ''Zootaxa'' 4159 (1), Magnolia Press, Auckland, New Zealand, p. 13 & p. 16 Rehn, J. A. G. & Rehn, J. W. H. (1939).
The Orthoptera of the Philippine Island, Part 1. - Phasmatidae; Obriminae
', Proceedings of The Academy of Natural Sciences (Vol. 90, 1938), Philadelphia 1938/39, pp. 463–464 Bank, S.; Buckley, T. R.; Büscher, T. H.; Bresseel, J.; Constant, J.; de Haan, M.; Dittmar, D.; Dräger, H.; Kahar, R. S.; Kang, A.; Kneubühler, B.; Langton-Myers, S. & Bradler, S. (2021).
Reconstructing the nonadaptive radiation of an ancient lineage of ground-dwelling stick insects (Phasmatodea: Heteropterygidae)
', Systematic Entomology, p. 13 & p. 16, DOI: 10.1111/syen.12472 Zompro, O. (2004). Revision of the genera of the Areolatae, including the status of Timema and Agathemera (Insecta, Phasmatodea), Goecke & Evers, Keltern-Weiler, p. 205 & pp. 210–211, ISBN 978-3-931374-39-6

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q14673183, from2=Q10645482 Phasmatodea genera Insects described in 1906