Floritettix are endemic to the North American Coastal Plain. Here I describe a new species, Floritettix phlox sp. nov., from the Bombing Range Ridge in central Florida. This species appears to be restricted to the heavily burned scrub habitat on this small ridge. This species is described based on morphological and biogeographical evidence.

Biodiversity, fire, grasshopper, islands, Lake Wales Ridge, sand ridges

In 2015, while conducting field surveys at Avon Park Air Force Range with John Barone, Reed Noss, and Steve Orzell, I collected a Floritettix Otte, 2014 that upon later microscopic examination did not fit the described species in a recently published revision of Otte (2014). More specimens were acquired during subsequent field expeditions to Florida and specifically Avon Park Air Force Range. Comparisons of these specimens with other Floritettix indicate that this is a new species that may be endemic to the scrub community of the Bombing Range Ridge. If so, then this would represent the first animal known to be endemic to the ridge.

Floritettix is one of the five acridid genera endemic to the southeastern United States (along with Aptenopedes Scudder, 1878, Eotettix Scudder, 1897, Floridacris Otte, 2014, and Gymnoscirtetes Scudder, 1897) and is Floridian in distribution, meaning that it is endemic to Florida and the southern portions of the adjacent states of Alabama and Georgia (Hill 2018). Otte (2014) established Floritettix with 13 species (six new; seven formerly Aptenopedes). Specimens from the Bombing Range Ridge were not examined in that study as access to the ridge has been limited since 1941, after the establishment of Avon Park Air Force Range. Most of the ridge itself occurs on the training range, where Air Force personnel gain experience firing aircraft mounted explosive ordinances, which results in frequent fires (Orzell and Bridges 2006). However, not all Floritettix are inhabitants of scrub environments. For example, a cursory examination of Otte’s (2014) maps indicate that Floritettix hubbelli (Hebard, 1936) have broad distributions that span much of peninsular Florida. My own sampling indicates that it typically inhabits moister flatwoods adjacent to the scrub environments and hyperseasonal prairies across south Florida.

Floritettix is differentiated by characters associated with the male genitalia. These morphological characters have been long used for species delineations in the Melanoplinae and have been further supported by molecular evidence (Hubbell 1932, Otte 2014, Hill 2015, Woller 2017, Huang et al. 2020). Here I provide the first key to the genus and a description of the new species.

All but one of the specimens used in this study were collected by staff of the Mississippi Entomological Museum (MEM) and are deposited there. A single specimen was found in the insect collection at the Archbold Biological Station (ABS). Comparisons are made with Floritettix nigropicta and F. hubbelli, two species that occur in close geographical proximity to the new species. Habitus and internal genitalia photographs were taken with a Leica Z16 stereoscope equipped with a Leica DFC420 camera and imaged at different stages during dissection. Images were automontaged with the Leica Application Suite. Measurements, made with a reticle mounted inside a Leica MZ12.5 stereomicroscope, were taken as follows:

Body length—Dorsally from the fastigium vertices to the distal end of the genicular lobe of caudal femur in a parallel plane with the abdomen.

Pronotum length—Dorsally, along the median carina.

Cercus length—Laterally, maximum possible measurement of the left cercus.

Cercus basal width—Laterally, along the point of attachment from the dorsal to ventral margin.

Mid cercus width—Laterally, at the mid-length of the left cercus.

Cercus apex width—Laterally, along the distal end.

The sand ridges of Florida have been long recognized areas of endemism (Deyrup 1990). These well-drained ridges and uplands are ancient islands that served as refuges during periods of higher sea level in the Miocene, Pliocene, and Pleistocene (McNeill 1957). During that time, the islands were areas of evolutionary divergence for populations separated by the sea but, due to their edaphic conditions, still function as islands after the water retreated from the surrounding lowlands. The resulting habitat islands support a xerophytic plant community called Florida scrub that is characterized by low, evergreen sclerophyllous oaks (Quercus ssp.), various shrubs, palmettos, sand pine (Pinus clausa), and numerous forb species with interspersed areas of bare sand. Florida scrub is a fire-maintained community, and in the absence of fire, the oaks grow dense and tall, often reducing grasshopper diversity and abundance (J. G. Hill unpublished data). The scrub on the Bombing Range Ridge is maintained by frequent fires resulting from explosives used in military training exercises as well as prescribed burns.

Studies on the speciation and biogeography of grasshoppers inhabiting the scrub communities of these sand ridges has focused on species belonging to the large genus Melanoplus Stål,1873 (Hubbell 1932, Deyrup 1990, Woller 2017) and has largely ignored the five genera endemic to the North American Coastal Plain (Hill 2018). Otte (2014) shows only county-level distributions and is of limited use in determining fine-scale distributional patterns. However, based on museum records and my own field studies, it appears that F. nigropicta is endemic to the Lake Wales Ridge and F. phlox to the Bombing Range Ridge. The Bombing Range Ridge rises from the Osceola Plain, reaching elevations of 38.1–44.2 m.a.s.l., and is thought to be a relict marine sand bar. In places, it is separated by as little as 2 km from the much larger Lake Wales Ridge (Fig. 6), but the two do not share identical floras and faunas (Orzell 1993, Branch and Hokit 2000). The Arbuckle Creek lowlands flow between the two ridges likely provides a dispersal barrier for flightless scrub-inhabiting insects.

The discovery of Floritettix phlox demonstrates that there is still a need for biodiversity exploration in the scrub communities on the Florida peninsula. Furthermore, given that Floritettix is Florididan in distribution, phylogenetic and biogeographic studies would likely yield results as equally interesting or greater than that of Melanoplus. Indeed, I have begun gathering specimens of all the species in the genus in ethanol for population-level study.

This publication is a contribution of the Mississippi Agriculture and Forestry Experiment Station and was partially supported by funding from the National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the National Science Foundation (OPUS 2043909, J.G. Hill PI). I thank Steve Orzell for facilitating access to the wonderful natural areas on Avon Park Air Force Range and for sharing his wealth of botanical and natural history knowledge. Additionally, I thank Brady Dunaway, Matt Thorn, and Zach Brown for assisting with collecting specimens and Ashley Baker for her assistance producing the figures for this article. Ray Fisher provided helpful edits on an early draft of this manuscript.