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Based on past and expanded DNA sampling, the orthopteran families Stenopelmatidae and Anostostomatidae, as currently structured, are shown to be non-monophyletic. The splay-footed cricket genus Comicus is confirmed to be genetically distinct from all Stenopelmatidae. We add two specimens to our previously published phylogenetic tree for New World Stenopelmatus Jerusalem cricket species and report the first multilocus DNA recovery for S. ater from Costa Rica. Male internal genitalia may be of systematic value in Jerusalem crickets, but we believe they should be analyzed when in their unfolded, “physiologically functional” configuration, where morphological characters can be seen in more detail when compared to their preserved, folded state. We describe Stenopelmatus nuevoguatemalae n. sp. from Guatemala. 

Patterns of morphological divergence across species’ ranges can provide insight into local adaptation and speciation. In this study, we compared phenotypic divergence among 4,221 crickets from 337 populations of two closely related species of field cricket,Gryllus firmusandG. pennsylvanicus, and their hybrids. We found that these species differ across their geographic range in key morphological traits, such as body size and ovipositor length, and we directly compared phenotype with genotype for a subset of crickets to demonstrate nuclear genetic introgression, phenotypic intermediacy of hybrids, and essentially unidirectional mitochondrial introgression. We discuss how these morphological traits relate to life history differences between the two species. Our comparisons across geographic areas support prior research suggesting that cryptic variation withinG. firmusmay represent different species. Our study highlights how variable morphology can be across wide-ranging species and the importance of studying reproductive barriers in more than one or two transects of a hybrid zone.