Overexploitation of wildlife is pervasive in many tropical regions, and in addition to being a significant conservation and sustainability concern, it has received global attention given discussions over the origins of zoonotic disease outbreaks. Where unsustainable, consumption of wild meat by urban residents has been identified as a major socio‐environmental challenge, given it is a significant driver of wildlife declines. Yet, information on urban wild meat consumers and possible ways to target conservation interventions remains lacking. Using one of the largest datasets of urban wild meat consumers (1391) collected through structured questionnaires in 20 towns and cities, we model the demographic, psychographic and spatial factors associated with wild meat consumption patterns in southern Cameroon. We find that nearly half of the sampled consumers ate wild meat once per week or more, and find that the probability of being a frequent consumer was greater among men, those living in smaller towns, and those who do not consider there to be a link between eating wild meat and disease. Threatened pangolin species are highly preferred among urban consumers, and most consumers did not consider there to be a link between COVID‐19 and pangolins. Most respondents had eaten wild meat since the beginning of COVID‐19 and had not reduced their wild meat consumption due to COVID‐19. For the first time, we show that consumers with beliefs against a link between wild meat consumption and disease and those with greater income were less likely to have decreased their wild meat consumption. We identified stakeholders including teachers and religious/community leaders as potentially appropriate messengers for demand‐reduction campaigns, with television and radio being the most trusted communication channels among wild meat consumers. Crucially, our study advances current scientific understanding of the factors that influence wild meat consumption frequency and change due to COVID‐19 by urban consumers (particularly health beliefs and settlement size). We discuss how our results could be used to inform the design of wild meat demand‐reduction interventions to bring the consumption of wild meat towards sustainability in Cameroon, and our approach applied pan‐tropically. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog.

Gryllotalpa weisei Simeu-Noutchom & Kekeunou sp. nov. was collected only in Tombel in the South-West region of Cameroon, during a survey conducted from March 2016 to March 2018 in the West, South-West and Centre regions of Cameroon. This species is close to Gryllotalpa microptera, collected for the first time in Cameroon during these investigations, only in the West region. G. weisei is different from G. microptera due to the hind wings that are vestigial; average fore wings length of 5.85±0.56 mm in male and 5.34±0.45 mm in female, not reaching the fifth abdominal segment; anal end of fore wings slightly concave; a stridulatory file with 54±8.02 teeth (47–71) in average, fairly spaced, with an average of 30±5.06 teeth per millimeter; hind tibia bearing 11 spines; internal process of ectophallus quite short. G. weisei abounds in mixed crop fields, followed by cocoa agro-forests; it is scarce in grassy fallows and in forest undergrowth. G. microptera was present in all types of vegetations in Bafoussam, Babeté and Bangoulap in the West region where it has been abundant in mixed crop fields, grass-fallow and coffee agro-forest but rare in forest undergrowth.

The genus Macroscirtus belongs to the subfamily Mecopodinae with five recognized species distributed in central-west tropical Africa. All species are known from very few localities. The species are reviewed and, in addition, a new species from Cameroon is described. Macroscirtus kekeunoui sp. nov. is characterized by the tegmina not reaching the penultimate abdominal segment; hind femura with mottled brown external face, ventral and internal face completely pale yellow; male subgenital plate elongated horizontally, indentation edge straight. Species descriptions of the genus are documented and a key to the species is also provided.

Background/Objectives: Despite their ecological significance, DNA barcoding data for African rainforest Orthoptera remain underrepresented globally, limiting progress in species discovery, biodiversity assessment, and conservation. This study aimed to generate molecular data for morphologically identified Serpusia Karsch, 1891 species to evaluate their taxonomic status. Methods: Specimens were collected from multiple sites in Cameroon and analyzed using DNA barcoding with COI-5P and 16S rDNA markers. Species delimitation was performed with Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery, and phylogenetic relationships were inferred using Maximum Likelihood and Bayesian Inference. Additionally, external morphology and the male phallic complex were examined. Results: Molecular analyses delineated 19 MOTUs, five corresponding to Serpusia opacula, seven to Serpusia succursor and the remainder to outgroups. Similarity-based assignments matched these MOTUs to 19 BINs. Phylogenetic reconstruction revealed S. opacula and S. succursor as two genetically distinct clades, with the S. opacula group more closely related to Aresceutica Karsch, 1896 than to the S. succursor group. Accordingly, we established a new genus, Paraserpusia gen. nov., to accommodate S. succursor. Within the S. opacula group, five species are recognized: one previously described (S. opacula) and four new species (S. kennei sp. nov., S. missoupi sp. nov., S. seinoi sp. nov., and S. verhaaghi sp. nov.). The former S. succursor, now Paraserpusia succursor, is divided into six well-supported lineages, five of which are formally described here (P. hoeferi sp. nov., P. husemanni sp. nov., P. kekeunoui sp. nov., P. tamessei sp. nov., and P. tindoi sp. nov.). A haplotype network based on COI-5P sequences corroborates three major clades corresponding to the S. opacula group, the S. succursor group, and Aresceutica. Diagnostic morphological differences between Serpusia and Paraserpusia are consistently supported across characters. Conclusions: This integrative approach reveals substantial hidden diversity within Serpusia and highlights the importance of combining molecular and morphological data to uncover and formally describe previously overlooked taxa.

The specimens studied were collected with sweep net and pitfall in the forests, agro-forests, herbaceous fallows, and crop fields of 14 localities in the southern part of Cameroon, from August 2015 to February 2018. The results show that Heteracris hannai sp. nov. and Heteracris lecoqi sp. nov. differ from previously known species of the same genus by the pattern of coloration and the details or shape of the phallic complex. H. lecoqi sp. nov. is characterized by light brownish body; male cercus with flattened, downcurved and obtuse apex; lophus strongly curved; interlophal space with V shape; apodeme of cingulum bow, convergent, with V-shape; valve of cingulum in lateral view longer than apical valve of penis; ramus in ventral view joined. H. hannai sp. nov. is distinct to other species by brown to grey body; male cercus with apex rounded, curved inside; lophus curved; interlophal space with U-shape; apodeme of cingulum thick, slightly parallel, with U shape; valve of cingulum in lateral view hardly longer than apical valve of penis; ramus in ventral view opened. The characteristics of H. guineensis are closer to H. hannai sp. nov. than to H. lecoqi sp. nov. H. lecoqi sp. nov. was collected only in the fallows while H. hannai sp. nov. was collected in the forests, agro-forests, fallows, and crop fields. Compared to H. guineensis, both new species are scarce in the natural vegetation and their distribution area is limited to two and four localities respectively for H. lecoqi sp. nov. and H. hannai sp. nov. All these three grasshopper’s species were recorded as accidental species in all types of vegetation.

Taxonomy and bio-ecology of Tetrigidae in Cameroon remain poorly studied. This study reports for the first time the presence of Thibron cf. tectatus Günther, 1979 in Cameroon and provides morphological and bio-ecological characteristics of Thibron illepidus (Karsh, 1893) and T. cf. tectatus. The specimens studied were collected between February 2016 and February 2018 in three regions of Cameroon. In each region, species were collected monthly using sweep-nets and pitfalls in four vegetation types. Some morphological characters formerly omitted in previous descriptions were considered in this study. In addition to the characters already known, T. illepidus differs from other species of the same genus in terms of length of body and interocular space, posterior thigh width, median femur length and width and finally the length of the three tarsomeres of posterior tarsus only in T. illepidus. In addition, for T. cf. tectatus, the length of the head, fastigium of vertex, eyes are longer than in T. illepidus. The later was more abundant in the Centre region (79%), less abundant in the Southwest region (18%) and rare in the West (3%). Meanwhile, Thibron cf. tectatus is rare in the Centre region (4%). Pitfalls (92%) were more effective than sweep-nets (8%) in capturing T. illepidus. Results obtained could contribute to improve the knowledge of the taxonomy of both species in Cameroon.