Diversification patterns of the grasshopper genus Zoniopoda Stål (Romaleidae, Acridoidea, Orthoptera) in open vegetation biomes of South America

Morphological and molecular ( COI and H3 ) evidence confirms the monophyly of the lubber genus Zoniopoda and of eight other genera of South American Romaleinae, rendering highly resolved tree topologies. A vicariant event, the uplift of the Brazilian Plateau and the subsidence of Chaco, is hypothesized to have split the ancestral distribution of Zoniopoda into the Tarsata group in Cerrado and the Iheringi group in Chaco. The discovery of a new grasshopper species of Zoniopoda highlights the necessity of systematic surveys in open vegetation biomes of South America that have received little attention compared to other biomes.