JARAGUA - NEW GENUS AND 2 NEW SPECIES OF AMERICAN PYRGOMORPHIDS (ORTHOPTERA, PYRGOMORPHIDAE) FROM HISPANIOLA, WEST-INDIES

A new genus and two new species of Pyrgomorphid grasshoppers from the southwestern portion of Hispaniola, West Indies, are described. These Pyrgomorphids belong to the tribe Sphenariini as shown by their acute fastigium of vertex, pronotum with little trace of lateral carinae, ve stigial tegminae, and the structure of their phallic complexes. These species are currently found isolated from each other by geographical b arriers, Jaragua serranus in the southern slopes of Sierra de Neiba an d Jaragua ouiedensis in a dwarf forest between Laguna de Oviedo and th e Caribbean sea. The most conspicuous diagnostic difference between th em is the shape of the posterior pronotal margin. The relationship of Jaragua to the other American Sphenariini, Prosphena Bolivar and Sphen arium Charpentier is not readily clear, but those two genera seem to b e closer to each other than either one is to Jaragua. This constitutes the first record of this family in the Caribbean.