Zubovskya Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1932

Genus Zubovskya Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1932 View in CoL

Zubovskya Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1932: 258 View in CoL ; Mistshenko 1952: 348; Storozhenko 1986: 478; Sergeev 1986: 195; Sergeev et al. 2019: 11 View Cited Treatment ; Li et al. 2015: 111.

Zubowskya View in CoL [sic!] Dovnar-Zapolskij, 1932: 255.

Zubovskia View in CoL [invalid emendation] Mistshenko, 1951: 214.

Eozubovskya Li & Yin, 2009: 1141 View in CoL .

Bienkoa View in CoL : Li et al. 2015: 111 (partim).

Kingdonella View in CoL : Li et al. 2015: 111 (partim).

Type species. Podisma parvula Ikonnikov, 1911 View in CoL , by original designation.

Remarks. The genus Zubovskya was erected by Dovnar-Zapolskij (1932) as a result of the revision of the Palaearctic Podismini ( Melanoplinae ). He included three species in this genus, namely Podisma parvula Ikonnikov, 1911 (as the type species), P. koeppeni Zubovsky, 1900 , and P. morii Bey-Bienko, 1931 . Later, Mistshenko (1952) described Zubovskya koreana from the Korean Peninsula and Kis (1965) characterized Z. banatica from a very remote and unexpected mountain region in Europe, namely the Southern Carpathians. In the 1980s, several new taxa were described by Storozhenko ( Z. mistshenkoi from the southern part of the Russian Far East ( Storozhenko 1980) and Z. mongolica from North Mongolia ( Storozhenko 1986)), by Zhang & Jin (1985) ( Z. planicaudata from NE China, Inner Mongolia), and by Huang (1987) ( Z. brachycercata , Z. dolichocercata , and Z. striata —all from NE China, Heilongjiang and Jilin). In addition, Storozhenko (1986) showed that Zubovskya parvula should be considered as the subspecies of Z. koeppeni . In 1995, Zheng et al. (1995) described Z. weishanensis from NE China as well. Later, Kim et al. (2017) redescribed Z. morii and synonymized Z. longifurcula (originally described as Eozubovskya longifurcula ( Jin et al., 2011)) and Z. koreana .

According the Orthoptera Species File ( Cigliano et al. 2025), the genus includes 12 species, namely Zubovskya banatica , Z. brachycercata , Z. dolichocercata , Z. eyouqiensis , Z. koeppeni , Z. koreana , Z. mistshenkoi , Z. mongolica , Z. morii , Z. planicaudata , Z. weishanensis , and Z. xiai . However, Storozhenko(1998) proved synonymy of Zubovskya koeppeni parvula and Z. brachycercata , Z. mistshenkoi and Z. striata , and showed that Z. dolichocercata should be considered as the subspecies of Z. koeppeni . Morphological variability of both species described by Li et al. (2015), namely Z. eyouqiensis and Z. xiai , from NE China corresponds to that of known subspecies of Z. koeppeni (cf. Storozhenko 1986; Storozhenko et al. 2015). This is why we suggest to synonymize them: Zubovskya koeppeni koeppeni ( Zubovsky, 1900) = Zubovskya eyouqiensis Li Li, & Yin, 2015 , syn. nov. and Zubovskya koeppeni parvula ( Ikonnikov, 1911) = Zubovska xiai Li, Li & Yin, 2015 , syn. nov.

Several teams of orthopterists tried either to erect a new genus (e.g. Eozubovskya Li & Yin, 2009 ) for Z. koreana or to move some species to other genera ( Z. morii to Bienkoa Mistshenko, 1950 and Z. mongolica to Kingdonella Uvarov, 1933 ( Li et al. 2015)). The genera Eozubovskya and Zubovskya were synonymized by Storozhenko et al. (2015). The Z. morii ’s generic assignment to Zubovskya was confirmed by Kim et al. (2017) and the same for Z. mongolica —by Sergeev et al. (2019). Besides, some authors suggested to include the genus Zubovskya in the subfamily Conophymatinae Mistshenko, 1952 based mainly on the complete absence of wings in many representatives of both Conophymatinae sensu Mistshenko and Melanoplinae . However, a century ago, Uvarov (1928) noted that winglessness of some genera is certainly secondary phenomena which can be observed on quite different tribes and subfamilies, especially in mountain endemics. In addition, the trait that is often used in keys to distinguish acridid subfamilies and tribes, namely an outer apical spine of hind tibia (its presence or absence), is commonly useful but, unfortunately, not universal and required and cannot be used as the only one (cf. Latchininsky et al. 2002; Kim et al. 2017). Moreover, in some species, its intraspecific variation can be revealed, e.g. the type series of Conophyma turkestanicum Sergeev, 1984 ( Conophymatinae ) includes some specimens without the outer apical spine of hind tibia and one specimen without both spines (outer and inner) ( Sergeev 1984). In addition, the molecular markers studied confirm the position of Zubovskya in the clade together with other taxa of the subfamily Melanoplinae and the quite different and separate clade for members of the subfamily Conophymatinae ( Sukhikh et al. 2019) .

Composition. Now only 8 species can be included in the genus Zubovskya :

Z. banatica Kis, 1965 View in CoL (Europe: Southern Carpathians)

Z. koeppeni ( Zubovsky, 1900) View in CoL (from the Altai-Sayan Mts. up to the south Arctic and the Russian Far East, NE China, Korean Peninsula, and Japan: Hokkaido)

Z. koreana Mistshenko, 1952 View in CoL (Korean Peninsula)

Z. mistshenkoi Storozhenko, 1980 View in CoL (the southern part of the Russian Far East, NE China)

Z. mongolica Storozhenko, 1986 View in CoL (Altai-Sayan Mts. in S Siberia and N Mongolia)

Z. morii ( Bey-Bienko, 1931) View in CoL (Korean Peninsula; probably, some adjacent parts of NE China as well)

Z. planicaudata Zhang & Jin, 1985 View in CoL (NE China)

Z. weishanensis Zheng, Zhang & Ren, 1995 View in CoL (NE China).