Four new species of Dolichopoda Bolivar, 1880 from Southern Sporades and Western Turkey (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae, Dolichopodainae)

A description of four new species of Dolichopoda Bolivar, 1880 (Orthoptera, Rhaphidophoridae) from Eastern Aegean region (Southern Sporades), including Western Turkey, is reported. This brings to a total of 11 the number of Dolichopoda species recorded for caves of the Aegean area. Overall, these species show a high degree of morphological homogeneity and they are very close to D. paraskevi Boudou-Saltet, 1973 from Crete and D. naxia Boudou-Saltet, 1972 from Cyclades (Naxos Island). The Western Turkish species are morphologically not closely related to the other Anatolian species; this suggests an independent origin for the taxa occurring in the Southern Taurus and Black Sea regions. These new data help to better define the already high level of diversity of the Hellenic Dolichopoda and strengthen the hypothesis that the central area of dispersal for the genus would correspond to the ancient Aegean plate. © Mauro Rampini et al.