Another species of European Ectobiinae travelling north - the new genus Planuncus and its relatives (Insecta: Blattodea: Ectobiinae)

A reliable character system is crucial to taxonomy and systematics, and it promises valid downstream inferences, e.g., estimates of diversity and disparity, reconstruction of evolutionary history, and even stratigraphic correlations. Modern taxonomy and systematics of extant cockroaches requires an integrative study involving multiple lines of evidence with emphasis on genital and reproductive characteristics and molecular data. In contrast, many fossil cockroach taxa published recently are based solely on forewings. Many studies have shown that forewing-based taxa are questionable. In order to find out how much of the phylogenetic signal we could ascertain from venational similarity, and how confident we could be, this study used forewing characters to reconstruct phylogenies of the genera of well-recognized family-group taxa. The intuitively reconstructed phylogeny of 75 extant genera failed to recover those taxa or their relationships. Parsimony analyses of various datasets all yielded strong polyphyly and chaotic relationships. In conclusion, the forewing of cockroaches is not a universally competent character system. The underlying causes are the complicated nature of veins and the limitations of current analytical techniques. The uncertainty in forewing-based taxonomy and systematics has been underestimated in the literature. Forewing-based fossil taxa warrant re-evaluation; some of them are herein deemed nomina dubia in their current state.

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Revision of the genus Attaphila (Blattodea: Blaberoidea), myrmecophiles living in the mushroom gardens of leaf-cutting ants

Bohn¹,

Nehring²,

Rodríguez³

et al. 2021

ASP

1,344

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The genus Attaphila, comprising minute myrmecophilous cockroaches, is revised, including now six previously known (A. aptera, A. bergi, A. flava, A. fungicola, A. schuppi, A. sexdentis) and three new species (A. multisetosasp. nov. Bohn and Klass, A. paucisetosasp. nov. Bohn and Klass, A. sinuosocarinatasp. nov. Bohn and Klass). All species are described or redescribed and depicted with their main characteristics; determination keys allow the identification of males and females. Especially the male characters allow a distribution to two species-groups with differing host specificity: bergi-group associated with Acromyrmex (and possibly Amoimyrmex) ants, fungicola-group associated with Atta ants; the former appears paraphyletic, the latter monophyletic. The genus Attaphila is characterised emphasising its unique features: (1) insertion of antennae at the bottom of a wide funnel-shaped deepening; (2) antenna with the possibility of a rectangular bending between scapus and pedicellus (associated with a distal excavation of the scapus) and (3) with an unusual shape and low number of antennomeres; (4) femora of legs with a ventral groove allowing a close spacing of femur and tibia during a strong flexion; (5) a complex and unusual shape of the laterosternal shelf area of the female genitalia (lack of shelf, presence of a pair of complicated tubular invaginations); and (6) lateral parts of abdominal tergite T9 of male ending in a pair of ventromesally directed arms, which contact the lateral margins of the subgenital plate. Functional aspects and the possible biological roles of these features are discussed. Older biological data are summarised and new observations are presented. The position of Attaphila within Blattodea is discussed. Like a recent molecular study, the morphology of the male genitalia places the genus in the Blaberoidea. The molecular result of Attaphila being closest to three particular blattellid genera, however, is conflictual from the morphological perspective.

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Another species of European Ectobiinae travelling north - the new genus Planuncus and its relatives (Insecta: Blattodea: Ectobiinae)

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The Jurassic Bajanzhargalanidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida?): New genera and species, and data on postabdominal morphology

The Jurassic Bajanzhargalanidae (Insecta: Grylloblattida?): New genera and species, and data on postabdominal morphology

Classifying Cockroaches According to Forewings: Pitfalls and Implications for Fossil Systematics

Revision of the genus Attaphila (Blattodea: Blaberoidea), myrmecophiles living in the mushroom gardens of leaf-cutting ants

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