Taxonomic study describes two new cricket genera and three species in New Guinea

A taxonomic study of Lebinthina crickets described two new genera, Diablotinthus and Lutinthus, and three new species: Diablotinthus lengguru, Lutinthus timika and Gnominthus hihilai. The work also transferred the previously described Lebinthus ambonensis to Diablotinthus as D. ambonensis.

The study combined newly collected crickets from the 2014 Lengguru expedition in West Papua, Indonesia, with specimens borrowed from museum collections. Its oldest material included two males collected at Hihilai Plantation in Milne Bay, Papua New Guinea, on 27 April 1944. Researchers examined external morphology, male genitalia and forewing venation, and they recorded and analyzed the calling song of D. lengguru.

The new genus Diablotinthus contains small, stocky, brown, short-winged crickets. Its type species, D. lengguru, was named for the Lengguru massif in West Papua. It has an orange-brown head, prominent eyes, a spotted trapezoidal pronotum and short forewings; females have rudimentary, non-overlapping forewings. The authors described the species as abundant in leaf litter on the forest floor during both day and night. A female was observed feeding on decaying fruit, leading the researchers to suggest that the cricket is probably detritivorous, although the study did not conduct a dedicated feeding experiment.

Measurements of D. lengguru showed a mean body length of 11.3 mm in 11 males, with a range of 10.6–12.9 mm, and 11.0 mm in nine females, with a range of 10.2–12.0 mm. Females had a mean ovipositor length of 5.4 mm, ranging from 4.8 to 6.2 mm. Adult and juvenile specimens came from the Lobo, Urisa, Kumawa and Kaimana areas of West Papua.

Acoustic recordings showed that the calling song of D. lengguru consists of echemes whose number of syllables and duration can vary; occasionally, the echemes extend into a continuous trill. Reported mean echeme duration was 0.32 ± 0.9 seconds, with a range of 0.20–0.48 seconds, and each echeme contained an average of 10 ± 4 syllables, ranging from 5 to 16. The mean interval between consecutive echemes was 0.59 ± 0.16 seconds. Individual syllables averaged 8.8 ± 2.1 milliseconds in duration, with a mean period of 36.8 ± 9.1 milliseconds.

The species’ frequency spectrum had a broadband dominant band from 25 to 30 kHz, dominating at 26.3 ± 1.1 kHz, with a reported range of 24.7–28.0 kHz. The authors associated this band with the second peak of a harmonic series and reported a highly attenuated fundamental peak at about 13 kHz. Recordings were made either in the field or in captivity, where males were held in small insect cages and a microphone was positioned no more than 30 centimetres away.

The second new genus, Lutinthus, was represented by the medium-sized and relatively slender L. timika. The name combines a reference to the French word for an elvish forest creature with the suffix used for Lebinthina genera. The species has a black upper head, a cream-colored facial mask, an enlarged rectangular fastigium and a finely rugulose frons. Its male genitalia include an elongate triangular pseudepiphallus with a broad, rounded posterior plate and no paired lophi.

L. timika was described from two males collected in 1997 during a Freeport insect survey around Kuala Kencana and Kali Kopi near Timika, in what is now Indonesia’s Central Papua Province. The holotype had a body length of 14.1 mm, and the paratype measured 13.8 mm. No female specimens were examined, and the study did not report a calling-song recording for the species. The transfer of Lebinthus ambonensis into Diablotinthus produced D. ambonensis, a species still known only from its 1995 male holotype collected on Ambon Island in Maluku.

Gnominthus hihilai, the third new species and third known member of the gnome-cricket genus, was also described from two males collected at Hihilai Plantation in 1944. Its holotype body length was 13.3 mm, compared with 13.7 mm for the paratype. It has a relatively uniform dark-brown face and differs from G. baitabagus and G. milneus in having a tongue-shaped apical portion of the male pseudepiphallus with a subacute apex.

The morphological analysis used focus-stacked photographs of pinned specimens, measurements made from those images, and dissection and imaging of male genitalia. Acoustic recordings were captured at 96 kilosamples per second and 16-bit resolution. Temporal parameters were measured with Raven Lite 2.0.0, while peak frequency was determined with the warbleR package in R 4.1.3. The study remains limited for several taxa, particularly L. timika, known from two males, and D. ambonensis, represented by one historical specimen. The authors noted that calling songs remain unknown for Lutinthus and numerous other Lebinthina genera and species, and said further fieldwork would be needed to obtain these recordings.

Subject of Research: Taxonomic description of New Guinea Lebinthina crickets, including two new genera and three new species

Article Title: New fairy-folk crickets from New Guinea ( Grylloidea , Eneopterinae , Lebinthina )

Article References: Tan, M. K., Rahmadi, C., & Robillard, T. (2025). New fairy-folk crickets from New Guinea (Grylloidea, Eneopterinae, Lebinthina). Journal of Orthoptera Research, 34(1), 45-62. https://doi.org/10.3897/jor.34.131932

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.3897/jor.34.131932

Keywords: taxonomy, crickets, Orthoptera, Lebinthina, New Guinea, species description, museum specimens, bioacoustics, fairy-folk, Guinea, Grylloidea, Eneopterinae