New cockroaches of the family Blaberidae are described from Southern Sumatra: two new species of the genus Cyrtonotula Uvarov, 1939, C. secunda sp. nov. and C. tertia sp. nov. (Epilamprinae); and one new species of the genus Paranauphoeta J.W.H. Rehn, 1951, P. pullata sp. nov. (Paranauphoetinae). Detailed morphological descriptions of the new species are given. Structures of the male genitalia of the genus Cyrtonotula are described for the first time. Hypothesis on the relationships of these new taxa as well as Morphna maculata Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865, Rhabdoblatta sp. and Pseudophoraspis sp. based on 28S ribosomal DNA sequences is discussed.

No abstract

The structural and functional organization of the ribosomal RNA gene cluster and the full-length R2 non-LTR retrotransposon (integrated into a specific site of 28S ribosomal RNA genes) of the German cockroach, Blattella germanica, is described. A partial sequence of the R2 retrotransposon of the cockroach Rhyparobia maderae is also analyzed. The analysis of previously published next-generation sequencing data from the B. germanica genome reveals a new type of retrotransposon closely related to R2 retrotransposons but with a random distribution in the genome. Phylogenetic analysis reveals that these newly described retrotransposons form a separate clade. It is shown that proteins corresponding to the open reading frames of newly described retrotransposons exhibit unequal structural domains. Within these retrotransposons, a recombination event is described. New mechanism of transposition activity is discussed. The essential structural features of R2 retrotransposons are conserved in cockroaches and are typical of previously described R2 retrotransposons. However, the investigation of the number and frequency of 5′-truncated R2 retrotransposon insertion variants in eight B. germanica populations suggests recent mobile element activity. It is shown that the pattern of 5′-truncated R2 retrotransposon copies can be an informative molecular genetic marker for revealing genetic distances between insect populations.