New data on taxonomy and evolution of fossil and recent Prophalangopsidae [Orthoptera: Hagloidea]

The family Prophalangopsidae is ancestral for two large Recent superfamilies: Tettigonioidea and Stenopelmatoidea. This family is known from the Early Jurassic, and it is divided into 5 fossil (including one new) and one Recent subfamilies. The partial revision of their generic composition shows that this family was most numerous and diverse in the Early Cretaceous of temperate zone of Old World, but this information is only preliminary. The mode of life of fossil Prophalangopsidae (Recent forms are practically not studied) was more or less similar to that of some Recent Stenopelmatoidea and Tettigonioidea, but with important distinctions connected with somewhat different type of function of the tegminal stridulatory apparatus. The main possible trends in evolution of this apparatus are (1) the displacement of stridulatory areas at the base of tegmina accompanied by their partial reduction and the improvement of cryptic appearance of male during stridulation, and (2) the significant increase of these areas accompanied by deterioration of male cryptic appearance during stridulation. The origin of Stenopelmatoidea and Tettigonioidea from Prophalangopsidae is a possible result of analogous processes