Tishechkin D.Yu. 2025. On the taxonomic status of Gomphocerus sibiricus turkestanicus Mistshenko, 1951 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Gomphocerinae) and on the subspeciation in grasshoppers in the mountains of Central Asia // Russian Entomol. J. Vol.34. No.1: 10–18 [in English].
Department of Entomology, Faculty of Biology, M.V. Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vorobyevy Gory, Moscow 119234 Russia.
Dmitry Tishechkin: macropsis@yandex.ru ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5451-3838
doi: 10.15298/rusentj.34.1.02
ABSTRACT. Comparative investigation of morphology and the male calling and courtship songs of Gomphocerus sibiricus sibiricus (Linnaeus, 1767) and G. sibiricus turkestanicus (Mistshenko, 1951) revealed no differences in either characters. Based on this, the synonymy G. sibiricus sibiricus = G. sibiricus turkestanicus, syn.n. is established. Previous studies of Central Asian subspecies of widespread Gomphocerinae species also showed that some of them are synonyms of nominotypical subspecies, while others are good species. No reliable cases of subspeciation in widespread species of Gomphocerinae in the mountains of Central Asia were revealed. It can be assumed that the Central Asian and West Siberian populations of Gomphocerinae are in contact through a continuous chain of mountain ranges of southeastern and eastern Kazakhstan and the adjacent territories of China, which prevents their divergence.
KEY WORDS: acoustic signal, song, morphology, evolution, Kyrgyzstan.