Abstract

A new species of stick insect, Diapheromera arena n.sp., from western Texas and New Mexico is the first new species of Diapheromera described from the United States in several decades. It lacks armature on the head of both sexes and has a unique apomorphy of a distinctly swollen third antennal segment that easily differentiates it from other species in that genus. Despite being broadly sympatric with Diapheromera velii Walsh, the occurrence of this new species only in areas of windblown sand and sand dunes appears to function as habitat separation between these two related stick insects at the local level. Despite the new species' relatively large geographic range, it is a rare taxon and much less common than Diapheromera velii in the same region. This new species is part of the specialized sandy environment ecosystem including endemic plants, other insects, and vertebrates in western Texas and New Mexico