First record of Sanaa regalis (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae) from the central Himalayas

A female individual of Sanaa regalis (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1895) was collected in the Tanahun district of Central Nepal in September 2021. This katydid had been reported prior from India in the East Himalayas and Chhattisgarh in Central India. This is the first record of this species from the Central Himalayas, Nepal. The female of this species differs from its congenerics S. imperialis (White, 1846) and S. intermedia Beier, 1944 in its ovipositor being distinctly black at the base.

Sanaa regalis is a colorful katydid described originally from Sikkim and later reported from Darjeeling, Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, and Arunanchal Pradesh in the East Himalayas (Ingrisch 2002, Barman 2003, Gogoi et al. 2015 and Raipur, Chhattisgarh in Central India (Gupta and Chandra 2018). It can be recognized by the four large greenish yellow maculae on its brown tegmina. There are several black blemishes on the brown part of the tegmina, and numerous bluish streaks on a black background First record of Sanaa regalis (Orthoptera, Tettigoniidae, Pseudophyllinae) from the central Himalayas on the hindwings. The hindwings are spotted anteriorly. The pronotum is greenish yellow, and the rest of the body is mostly black with tinges of brown in some parts. The subgenital plate of the male is black, while the ovipositor of the female is black at its base (Beier 1962, Barman 2003, Cigliano et al. 2022.
Here, we report the first record of this species from the Central Himalayas in Nepal.

Methods
The individual was seen by the first author as a chance encounter on a rural road in Shuklagandaki Municipality in the Tanahun district of Central Nepal (Fig. 7). In the field, this unique-looking Tettigoniidae could only be identified as a female Pseudophyllinae. The individual was handpicked, stored in a perforated vial, and brought to Pokhara alive for further study. Photographs of the live individual were then taken (Figs 1, 2) using a Canon 7D mark II with 100 mm f/2.8L Macro IS USM lens. For further identification, the individual was euthanized using ethyl acetate, and the specimen was taken to Agriculture and Forestry University (AFU), Chitwan. It was pinned and spread, and photographs of different parts were taken (Figs 3-6) with the same setup as above. The location and altitude of the collection locality were determined using Google Maps, and a map of the study area was created using ArcMap 10.4. The specimen is deposited at Annapurna Natural History Museum, Pokhara.
Identification was done using Beier (1962), Barman (2003), and the Orthoptera Species File (Cigliano et al. 2022). The identification was confirmed by Dr. Sigfrid Ingrisch (Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Germany).    Comparison with congeners.-There are two other species of Sanaa, both reported from the Indomalaya region: S. intermedia Beier, 1944, originally reported from Than-Moi, Vietnam, and S. imperialis (White, 1846), originally reported from Sylhet, Bangladesh (Orthoptera Species File Version 5.0/5.0). The latter species, however, is also recorded from Nepal (Beier 1962). The female of S. regalis differs from that of S. imperialis mainly in having its ovipositor black at the base, while the ovipositor of S. imperialis is yellow (Barman 2003). Similarly, the ovipositor of S. intermedia is yellow-brown at the base (Beier 1962).

Discussion
Studies of the Orthoptera of Nepal have been scarce in recent years, and it is not surprising to find a species in Nepal that had only ever been reported from neighboring countries. Sanaa regalis is probably also found in East Nepal, as well as at higher or lower altitudes, since it has been reported at higher (Sikkim, Darjeeling, Arunanchal Pradesh, Nagaland) and lower (Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh) altitudes in the East Himalayas and Central India.
Further research could significantly extend the knowledge on the Tettigoniidae of Nepal.