The First Record of Phaulotettix ablusus from the United States (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae).

The grasshopper genus PhaulotettixScudder, 1897 (Orthoptera: Acrididae: Melanoplinae) contains 15 species and is known from northeastern Mexico and the southernmost United States (Barrientos-Lozano et al., 2011; Cigliano et al., 2021). Until now, only two species were known to occur in the United States: P. compressusScudder, 1897 and P. eurycercusHebard, 1918, with the distribution of both limited to south Texas (Barrientos-Lozano et al., 2011). Phaulotettix ablusus Barrientos-Lozano, Rocha-Sánchez and Méndez-Gómez, 2011 was hitherto known only from its type locality in the eastern Sierra Madre region of Cohuila, Mexico (Barrientos-Lozano et al., 2011). A single male was collected by one of the authors (TJH) in Starr County, Texas, in July 2019. It was found in a butterfly garden in xeric Tamaulipan scrubland of the South Texas Plains. Very few plants were in bloom at the time of collection and the garden had likely not been watered in some time, though this is typical of the region at this time of year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]