Revision of Landrevinae crickets (Insecta: Orthoptera: Grylloidea: Gryllidae) from India, including taxonomic clarification of the type genus of the subfamily, descriptions of a new genus and three new species, and male and female identification keys

Abstract Landrevinae are nocturnal, forest-dwelling crickets, that live underneath tree bark. To clarify their diversity in India, we reconsider the taxonomic definition of the genus Landreva Walker, 1869, known from India, Sri Lanka, Vanuatu, and Costa Rica. We assert that Landreva is monotypic for Landreva insignis Walker, 1869 from Sri Lanka, as this is the only species described by Walker (1869) when defining the genus. Based on the genitalic structures and their potential endemicity to the Indian subcontinent, all the species described previously in Landreva are here moved to a new genus, Ajareta Desutter-Grandcolas & Jaiswara, n. gen. , type species Ajareta kervasae Desutter-Grandcolas & Jaiswara, sp. nov. , with the following new combinations: Ajareta angustifrons (Chopard, 1936) n. comb. (Sri Lanka), Ajareta clara (Walker, 1869) n. comb. (Sri Lanka), Ajareta ebneri (Chopard, 1969) n. comb. (India, East Himalayas, Sikkim), Ajareta hemiptera (Bolivar, 1900) n. comb. (India, Tamil Nadu), Ajareta indica (Vasanth, 1993) n. comb. (India, Assam), Ajareta kuveni (Fernando, 1957) n. comb. (Sri Lanka), Ajareta semialata (Chopard, 1928) n. comb. (India, Karnataka), Ajareta subaptera (Chopard, 1925) n. comb. (Sri Lanka), Ajareta talus (Fernando, 1958) n. comb. (Sri Lanka) and Ajareta zola (Fernando, 1957) n. comb. (Sri Lanka). Three new species are also described from Southern India, i.e., Ajareta kervasae Desutter-Grandcolas & Jaiswara sp. nov. from Karnataka, and Ajareta sairandhriensis Jaiswara & Bhaskar sp. nov. and Ajareta meridionalis Desutter-Grandcolas sp. nov. , both from Kerala. The Landreva species described from outside the Indian Region are moved to different genera: Landreva rica Otte, 2007, described from Costa Rica, is assigned to the neotropical genus Perutrella Gorochov, 2011 (Oecanthidae, Tafaliscinae, Tafaliscina) forming the combination Perutrella rica (Otte, 2006) n. comb. Landreva erromanga Otte, 2006, described from Vanuatu, is transferred to landrevine genus Eleva Otte, 1988 with the following combination Eleva erromanga (Otte, 2006) n. comb .