Os ortópteros neotropicais, com exceção aos de importância econômica, de maneira geral, são muito pouco conhecidos em relação aos demais ortópteros ao redor do mundo. Isso devido à carência de trabalhos científicos para esse grupo, principalmente os estudos taxonômicos; consequentemente, o número de espécies descritas atualmente é muito subestimado. Não diferente, o gênero Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, possui atualmente 20 espécies descritas, distribuídas nos domínios de Mata Atlântica e Cerrado, que se estendem pelas regiões sul, sudeste e centro-oeste brasileiras, além de também serem encontrados na Bolívia e Paraguai. São grilos ativos no período noturno, habitantes cavidades naturais, como tocas, barrancos, troncos de árvores mortas, fendas de rochas e cavernas. Neste estudo, o gênero foi revisado, incluindo a redescrição de espécies pouco conhecidas, descrição de sete novas espécies (E. scopula Campos, sp. nov., E. gigas Campos, sp. nov., E. neomarmorata Campos, sp. nov., E. desutterae Campos, sp. nov., E. putuhra Campos, sp. nov., E. fontanettiae Nihei & de Mello, sp. nov. e E. melloi Campos, sp. nov.), três novas combinações (E. speluncae (Mello-Leitão, 1937) comb. nov., E. minuta (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov. e E. endophallica (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov.) e uma sinonímia nova (E. lencionii Bolfarini, 2016 = E. dissimilis Desutter-Grandcolas, 1995, syn. nov.), totalizando 29 espécies para o grupo. Também foram feitos uma chave de identificação para o gênero e mapas de distribuição de suas espécies. Uma análise filogenética é apresentada incluindo 38 terminais, dos quais 12 foram considerados como grupo externo, e 98 caracteres morfológicos. Essa análise suportou a monofilia do gênero, permitiu visualizar seu relacionamento com táxons próximos de Luzarinae e sustenta a proposta de sinonímia de Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 com Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, de modo a sua taxonomia refletir a monofilia indicada na análise filogenética / The Neotropical Orthoptera, excluding those with economic importance, are poorly known, in comparison with the orthopterans around the world. The main reason is the lack of scientific studies on this group, mainly taxonomic studies, resulting in a underestimated number of described species. Likewise, Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956 comprises 20 described species, and is mostly distributed on Atlantic Forest and Cerrado areas, extending from south, southeast and midwest Brazilian regions, and beyond, reaching Bolivia and Paraguay. Eidmanacris species are active at night, and inhabit natural cavities as burrows, bounds, hollow trees trunks, cavities in rocks and caves. In this study, the genus was reviewed, including the redescription of seven new species (E. scopula Campos, sp. nov., E. gigas Campos, sp. nov., E. neomarmorata Campos, sp. nov., E. desutterae Campos, sp. nov., E. putuhra Campos, sp. nov., E. fontanettiae Nihei & de Mello, sp. nov. and E. melloi Campos, sp. nov.), three new combinations (E. speluncae (Mello-Leitão, 1937) comb. nov., E. minuta (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov. and E. endophallica (de Mello, 1990) comb. nov.) and one synonym (E. lencionii Bolfarini, 2016 = E. dissimilis Desutter-Grandcolas, 1995, syn. nov.), totalizing 29 species in this genus. An identification key for the genus and a distribution map of species were made. A phylogenetic analysis is presented including 38 terminals, 12 of them as outgroup and 98 morphological characters This analysis attested the monophyly of the genus, showed its relationships with another Luzarinae taxa, and supported the proposal of synonymy of Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 with Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956, so that its taxonomy reflected the monophyly indicated in the phylogenetic analysis

A família Phalangopsidae, de distribuição tropical, constitui um dos maiores grupos de grilos, sendo a maior linhagem na região Neotropical. Nesta região, a subfamília Luzarinae apresenta a maior diversidade em número de espécies e adaptações ecológicas. Suas relações evolutivas, entretanto, em virtude da falta de hipóteses filogenéticas propostas para o grupo, são desconhecidas. Além disso, a terminologia empregada para a caracterização do complexo fálico é amplamente debatida. Baseando-se nesses problemas, o presente estudo teve como objetivo realizar a primeira análise cladística de Phalangopsidae utilizando caracteres morfológicos e genitais, com o objetivo de propor uma classificação supragenérica para este grupo. Uma vez que a terminologia para o complexo fálico dos grilos é debatida, foi necessário um estudo morfológico do complexo fálico com o objetivo de adequar a terminologia e propor algumas correções. Este estudo analisou o complexo fálico de grilos falangopsídeos e propôs as seguintes adequações para a terminologia genital: a presença de projeções ectofálicas ventrais em alguns táxons de Luzarinae, além da presença de uma projeção adicional em alguns grupos, como em Lerneca e gêneros próximos; a divisão da invaginação ectofálica em cinco partes: apódemas ectofálicos ventrais, arco ectofálico, projeções ectofálicas dorsais, projeções ectofálicas ventrais e dobra ectofálica; a descrição do esclerito endofálico deve considerar as projeções endofálicas medial e laterais. O estudo do complexo fálico permitiu levantar 83 caracteres genitais, os quais somados aos 59 caracteres de morfologia totalizaram 142 caracteres. A análise foi realizada com 60 espécies, sendo 5 no grupo externo e foram conduzidas buscas com pesagem igual e pesagem implicada, dos caracteres morfológicos e genitais e apenas dos caracteres genitais. As análises revelaram que Phalangopsidae e Luzarinae são monofiléticas. Além disso, baseado nos resultados de uma das análises conduzidas neste estudo, as seguintes alterações taxonômicas foram propostas para Luzarinae: o gênero Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 é considerado sinônimo júnior de Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956; a espécie Strinatia Teresópolis não foi agrupada junto às demais espécies de Strinatia e recomenda-se sua transferência para um novo gênero, a ser descrito; o gênero Endecous passa a agrupar apenas dois subgêneros, Endecous e Notendecous; propõe-se a criação de uma nova tribo, Aracambini trib. nov.; propõe-se a elevação do status de subtribo Lernecina para tribo Lernecini status nov.; e propõe-se o resgate da tribo Luzarini status nov. / The Family Phalangopsidae occurs in tropical areas of the world and stands as one of the major lineages of crickets. It is considered the largest taxon of crickets in the Neotropical Region. In the Neotropics, Luzarinae comprises the most diverse taxon in number of species and ecological adaptations. However, the evolutionary relationships between its clades, due to the lack of phylogenetic hypothesis proposed, are unknown. Furthermore, the terminology employed for characterization of male phallic complex is still debated and a revision of its terms is needed. Based in these issues, this study aims to perform the first cladistic analysis of Phalangopsidae using morphological and genital characters, in order to propose a suprageneric classification for this group. Since the terminology for phallic complex is still debated, it was necessary a morphological study of the male phallic complex, improving the terminology and proposing some corrections. Thus, the following corrections are proposed: the presence of ventral pseudepiphallic projections in some Luzarinae taxa, and the presence of an additional projection in some genera, as Lerneca and its related genera; the description of the ectophallic invagination must consider its five parts: ventral ectophallic apodemes, ectophallic arc, dorsal ectophallic projections, ventral ectophallic projections and the ectophallic fold; the description of the endophallic sclerite must consider its median and lateral projections. The study of the male phallic complex allowed the proposition of 83 genital characters. The cladistic analysis was performed using 142 characters (83 genital + 59 morphology) and 60 species, five species were used as outgroups. The analysis were performed using both equal weights and implied weights for the morphological + genital characters and only genital characters. The following taxonomic alterations were made based in one of the analysis: the genus Endophallusia de Mello, 1990 is considered a junior synonym of Eidmanacris Chopard, 1956; the species Strinatia teresopolis Mesa, 1999 was not grouped with the other species of Strinatia and it is transferred to a new genus, to be defined; the genus Endecous now comprises two subgenera, Endecous and Notendecous; a new tribe Aracambini trib. nov. is proposed; the elevation of status of subtribe Lernecina to tribe Lernecini status nov. is proposed; and the tribe Luzarini is erected, Luzarini status nov.

Since several decades, field crickets of the subfamily Gryllinae under order Orthoptera have been used as a model group by researchers working in the field of neuroethology, behavioural ecology and bioacoustics. Subfamily Gryllinae is a much diversified group and members are diverse in their biological traits however the most commonly used model systems in the research fields belong to only three genera: Gryllus, Teleogryllus and Acheta. All the three genera are related to each other therefore, they fail to represent the wide diversity of ecological and behavioral traits that are encompassed by other members of Gryllinae. To understand the diversity in an evolutionary framework in field crickets, it is thus necessary to take into account the evolutionary background of the model systems. A phylogenetic analysis is a prerequisite for all evolutionary studies. A phylogeny hypothesizes the relationship among the studied taxa on the basis of homology drawn from all the characters that were used for the analysis. The phylogenetic tree is a branching diagram where related taxa are grouped together at nodes and the terminal ends of the branches are the studied taxa. The characters are mapped on to this tree thus indicating the hypothetical ancestral state of each character at the nodes and explaining the transformational stages of each character that gave rise to the current character state. This procedure helps in understanding the evolutionary history and understanding the patterns of relationships among taxa that in turn also help in identification of species. This process of identification and classification by phylogenetic reconstruction is formally known as “phylogenetic systematics”. The main goal of this thesis work was to understand the phylogenetic relationships among field crickets of the subfamily Gryllinae. This study is of importance in the field of orthopteran classification because since the 19th century, taxonomists proposed several taxonomic rankings and various classificatory schemes either by describing new classificatory levels or by upgrading existing taxonomic levels to higher levels. In addition, different sets of morphological characters have been used in proposing the classification hypotheses which in turn leads to the existence of several mutually exclusive hypotheses. Although there have been several changes in the taxonomic positioning of these crickets under Gryllinae, none so far have been based on a phylogenetic hypothesis. Therefore, I described 100 characters based on external and internal morphological structures of crickets belonging to 17 genera to test all the previously proposed classificatory hypotheses, provide a scheme for classifying these crickets under different hierarchical levels under Gryllinae and a strong base for conducting further evolutionary studies. The results lend full support to one of the previously proposed hypotheses for classification. Subfamily Gryllinae is a monophyletic clade where all the field crickets should be grouped under two tribes. The results also invalidate several tribes that have been erected in recent years. The second aim was to test species concepts by examining concordance in species boundaries generated from different data sets and to study the pattern of song evolution in field crickets. Therefore, for this study a field cricket belonging to genus Itaropsis was selected. Only one species of Itaropsis is known from the Indian subcontinent which was described from Sri Lanka. Interestingly, five call types of Itaropsis were encountered when a field survey was performed at four different localities in the Western Ghats of India. Males of the all five call types (varying from long trills to short chirps) looked morphologically very similar to each other. However, they differed in their calling song structure, I described four call features (carrier frqeuncy, syllable period, syllable duration and call duration) and classified the individuals into clusters by calculating distances using these call features. The clusters thus obtained were considered to reflect different species under the genus Itaropsis. To assure that the clusters thus obtained reflect different species, concordance between the results was tested by comparing these results with the clades of an available phylogeny for the collected individuals of this genus using both morphological and molecular data. The acoustic clusters showed concordance with the phylogenetic lineages largely however an absolute match was not found suggesting that these lineages cannot be called as distinct species. The pattern of evolution of songs in Itaropsis was examined by optimizing the call features on the phylogenetic tree derived from molecular data. This showed short chirps with a dominant frequency of 7 kHz to be the ancestral call type within this genus, from which long trills with long syllable durations have evolved. There were no significant patterns in the evolution of carrier frequency. In most crickets, the calling songs that are produced by males to attract their conspecific females are considered species specific therefore, the calling songs serve as an additional tool in identification of crickets. The third aim of my work was to use only call features of crickets in delineation of species but for higher number of species. Therefore, for this I used recorded calling songs of 14 species of field crickets and described their call features. I then used either five or seven call features to construct clusters based on Euclidean distances between the songs of all pairs of individuals. I also carried out a discriminant function analysis of these data to test the efficiency of species identification when taxa were specified a priori. I varied the number of species used for the analysis systematically from 5 to 14 to examine the effect of varying the number of taxa on correct species identification. The results showed that taxa number can be increased upto ten to obtain almost correct classification however, using six to seven taxa is optimal since they provide 90% accuracy in classification. To the best of my knowledge, this study on understanding the phylogenetic relationships among field crickets is the first to be carried out at subfamily level. Description of new call types reflecting multiple or incipient species under the genus Itaropsis and use of acoustic features in species identification of Indian field crickets is also a new contribution to the area of orthopteran systematics and phylogenetics.