A new species of Neoblattella Shelford (Blattellidae: Pseudophyllodromiinae) from Amazonas State, Brazil

SYSTEMATICS, MORPHOLOGY AND PHYSIOLOGY

A new species of Neoblattella Shelford (Blattellidae: Pseudophyllodromiinae) from Amazonas State, Brazil

SM Lopes; A Khouri

Depto de Entomologia, Museu Nacional, Univ Federal do Rio de Janeiro, São Cristóvão, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil

^{Correspondence}

ABSTRACT

Neoblattella mista sp. nov. is described and illustrated based on male genitalia and morphological characters of a single specimen collected in the town of Coari, State of Amazonas, Brazil. By studying the literature on the genus, we determined that N. mista sp. nov. differs from the other four known complexes in the morphology of its genital structures, including the supra-anal plate, subgenital plate, right and left phallomeres, median genital sclerite and tergal modification in the abdomen, and is placed in the new "mista complex".

Keywords: Blattaria, Dictyoptera, new taxon, taxonomy

Introduction

Neoblattella was described by Shelford (1911) based on Blatta adspersicollis (Ståll). Rehn (1915) described a new species of this genus from Argentina, N. puerilis Rehn, based on a female; and N. sucina Rehn from Pará, Brazil, later in 1932. Bruijning (1959) transferred three species of the genus Neoblattella to his newly erected genus Nahublattella, and included Na. aristonice (Hebard), Na. incompta (Hebard) and Na. nahua (Saussure), differing from Neoblattella by the tergal modification in the fifth tergite of the abdomen of the male, which forms a pouch on each side and occasionally have cilia scattered on the seventh tergite; subgenital plate symmetrical with long styles, located laterally near the lateral edges of the plate; supra-anal plate with median notch demarcated. He also included six species of Neoblattella known in the adspersicollis group: N. adspersicollis (Stål); N. binodosa Hebard, N. poecilops Hebard, N. longior Hebard, N. unifascia Hebard, and N. guianae Hebard. Princis (1969) listed 34 species of Neoblattella in his "Orthopterorum Catalogus". Princis (1971) added two more species to the list (N. guadeloupensis and N. perdentata by Bonfils (1969) from Guadeloupe Islands) in his "Corrigenda et addenda" of the last part of the world Catalogue, and Rocha e Silva-Albuquerque & Lopes (1976) described Neoblattella carvalhoi from Brazil. Lopes & Oliveira (2004a) added new records for Brazil and proposed a new status for N. livida Rocha e Silva-Albuquerque and N. laodamia Rehn & Hebard, placing both taxa in the genus Nahublattella, reaffirming to Princis (1969). Beccaloni (2007) listed 37 species, but one of them, N. sooretamensis Rocha & Silva Albuquerque, was considered a synonym of Amazonina conspersa (Brunner von Wanttenwyl) (Pellens & Grandcolas, 2008). Lopes & Khouri (2009) described two species from Amazonas State, Brazil (N. amazonensis and N. poecilopensis) and reported a new distribution record of N. longior.

The 36 known species of the genus Neoblattella are distributed as follows: in South America (18 species), and in the West Indies (Antillean islands) and Florida, United States (18 species). Of the 18 South American species, 15 occur in Brazil: N. amazonensis Lopes & Khouri, N. adspersicollis (Stål), N. binodosa Hebard, N. carvalhoi Rocha e Silva & Lopes, N. elegantula Rocha e Silva, N. guianae Hebard, N. longior Hebard, N. paulista Rocha e Silva & Gurney, N. picta Rocha e Silva & Gurney, N. poecilops Hebard, N. poecilopensis Lopes & Khouri, N. puerilis Rehn, N. sucina Rehn, N. titania Rehn, and N. unifascia Hebard.

Species of Neoblattella are characterized by the male abdomen with a tergal modification on the sixth, seventh, and eighth segments or only on the seventh segment, in the form of scattered cilia; a pronounced supra-anal plate between the cerci, with margins straight and convergent; subgenital plate symmetrical, styles equal, tapering, and arranged next to the edges of the plate; genital median sclerite bifurcated, with its apex variously shaped. According to the configuration of the genital plate and median sclerite, species can be grouped in the longior, carvalhoi, adspersicollis, and unifascia complex (Lopes & Oliveira 2004b).

Material and Methods

The genital structures of the male specimen were examined by removing the apex of the abdomen, using traditional dissection techniques as described by Lopes & Oliveira (2000) and Gurney et al (1964). The terminology used for describing the structures and the position in the subfamily Pseudophyllodromiinae followed Roth (2003). Images were taken with a Canon Power Shot SX20 IS-12.1 megapixels, Zoom 20x digital camera and the drawings were digitized using a video camera. The studied material is deposited in the entomological collection in the Museu Nacional, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ).

Neoblattella mista sp. nov. (Fig 1)

Holotype male. General coloration glassy-clear, bright brown. Head with brown spots on the clypeus and the interocular space; front with small dark-brown spots. Pronotum, central disk with scattered and symmetrical dark-brown spots. Tegmina and wings with dark-brown tips. Legs dark brown, spine insertions light brown. Arolium brown, and claws on the apex darker. Abdomen of male yellow-brown with darker markings.

Head small and sub-triangular, exposed under the pronotum. Large interocular area about two-thirds the size of the space between the bases of the insertions of the antennae (Fig 1). Antennae long and tomentose. Maxillary palp with the first and second segments smaller than the third and fourth which are subequal in size, and the fifth segment tomentose and spatulate, larger than the preceding ones.

Pronotum elliptical with central disk hexagonal (Fig 2). Anterior legs with ventro-cephalic margin of the fore femur with a series of spines that gradually decrease in size of the base towards the apex, with two pre-apical spines and one apical (Type A), ventro-caudal margin with four large spaced spines, and one more apical; mid femur with ventro-cephalic margin with three spines developed and spaced, with one apical spine; ventro-caudal margin with a row of spines at the base and one row of three to four spines toward the apex; presence of geniculate spine. Hind femur with a series of four to five spines on ventro-cephalic margin; ventro-caudal margin with a row of four spaced spines. Pulvilli present on tarsal segments and most developed on fourth segment, arolia developed to the length of the claws, which are symmetrical and specialized. Tegmen with marginal field narrow, elongated and slightly concave; elongated scapular field, convex, and the arrangement of the veins oblique; discoidal field broad, convex, and with the veins arranged Abdomen. longitudinally; anal field broad and convex. Long wing, costal area with tips of branches of radial not clubbed, apical triangle and anal sector folding fanwise. Abdomen. Tergal modification on the seventh and eight segments, with sparse cilia on the segment (Fig 3). Supra-anal plate ciliated, slightly enlarged, with the median portion prominent and straight, and with cilia concentrated latero-apically. Cerci sharply tapering, with 12 segments (Fig 4). Subgenital plate symmetrical, broad, with slight median indentation apical; styles long and tapering, located near the lateral edges of the plate (Fig 5). Genitalia with left phallomere medially sclerotized and apically rounded (Fig 6); right phallomere hook-shaped, with thin apex (Fig 7); genital median sclerite bifurcated (Fig 8).

Measurements (mm), holotype male. Total length 24; length of pronotum 4; width of pronotum 6; length of tegmina 20; width of tegmina 6.

Material examined. Holotype male, Brazil, Amazonas, Coari, Rio Urucu, Ruc-36, 4º55'53"S and 65º18'13"W, 25/II-10/III/1955, Coll. P. Bührnheim.

Etymology. From the Latin "mixtus -a -um," past participle of misceo.

Comments. Neoblattella mista sp. nov. has features similar to N. binodosa in the configuration of the pronotum, to N. adspersicollis in the configuration of the left phallomere, particularly the small number of spines, and also in the right phallomere, and to N. unifascia in the subgenital plate. It differs from other species of the genus, among other characters, in the apical portion of the supra-anal plate and the configuration of the median sclerite. The male of N. mista sp. nov. does not fit into any of the four known species complexes, thus we have erected the new "mista complex" in order to accommodate it. Neoblattella mista differs from the others complexes (i.e., longior, carvalhoi, adspersicollis, and unifascia) mainly in the morphology of its genital structures, including the supra-anal plate, subgenital plate, right and left phallomeres, median genital sclerite and tergal modification in the abdomen.

Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to all anonymous reviewers whose comments helped to improve the manuscript.

Received 11 May 2010 and accepted 30 December 2010

Edited by Takumasa Kondo - CORPOICA

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Publication Dates

• Publication in this collection
  21 June 2011
• Date of issue
  June 2011

History

• Received
  11 May 2010
• Accepted
  30 Dec 2010