Three cryptic Anaplecta (Blattodea, Blattoidea, Anaplectidae) species revealed by female genitalia, plus seven new species from China

Abstract

Morphological characteristics, including male and female genitalia, combined with DNA barcodes were used to identify 470 Anaplecta specimens sampled from China. Ten Anaplecta species are new to science, including three cryptic species: A. paraomei Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. condensa Zhu & Che, sp. nov., and A. longihamata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., which are distinguished mainly by their female genitalia. The other seven new species are as follows: A. bicruris Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. spinosa Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. ungulata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. anomala Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. serrata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A. bombycina Zhu & Che, sp. nov., and A. truncatula Zhu & Che, sp. nov. This study illustrates that differences in female genitalia can be used to distinguish among species of Anaplecta. The female genitalia of 19 Chinese Anaplecta species are described and illustrated in this paper.

Exploring the diversity of Eupolyphaga Chopard, 1929 (Blattodea, Corydioidea): species delimitation based on morphology and molecular analysis

“…In recent years, ABGD has been successfully applied in the species delimitation of some Blattodea genera (e.g., Cryptocercus, Bai et al 2018;Ectobiidae, Che et al 2017;Margattea, He et al 2021;Anaplecta, Deng et al 2020, Zhu et al 2022. So far, species of Corydioidea have rarely been studied by molecular species delimitation methods (Trotter et al 2017).…”

“…Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD) (Puillandre et al 2012) is now a common DNA-based delimitation method. So far, it has been successfully applied in many studies about cockroaches (e.g., Bai et al 2018;Yang et al 2019;Deng et al 2020;He et al 2021;Wang et al 2021;Zhu et al 2022), and this method combined with morphological characters can help us judge whether they are different species or not.…”

Redescription of Periplaneta arabica (Bey-Bienko, 1938) (Blattodea, Blattidae), with a comparative analysis of three species of Periplaneta Burmeister, 1838 (sensu stricto)

“…DNA barcoding has been confirmed to be a helpful tool in discovery of new species, matching nymphs with adults, and revealing sexual dimorphism and cryptic species in cockroaches ( Evangelista et al 2013 ; Che et al 2017 ; Yang et al 2019 ; Li et al 2022 ; Zhu et al 2022 ). Herein, we use DNA barcoding to pair male, female and nymphs of P. arabica , allowing a comprehensive redescription of this species.…”

Establishment of two new Anaplecta species (Blattodea, Blattoidea, Anaplectidae) based on morphological and COI data with an additional description of Anaplecta furcata Deng & Che, 2020

“…At present, 112 species of Anaplecta have been recorded, widely distributed in Asia, North America, South America, Africa and Oceania (21 species in China) (Beccaloni 2014;Deng et al 2020;Zhu et al 2022). As taxonomic research progresses, both morphological characters including male and female genitalia and DNA barcodes have been applied to the identification of Anaplecta species (Deng et al 2020;Zhu et al 2022). This has enriched the knowledge of the Anaplecta fauna, which shows a rich diversity.…”

“…The effective discernment of species using male genitalia was verified in Deng et al (2020) although subtle intraspecific variation occurred in male genitalia of some Anaplecta species. Three cryptic Anaplecta species were revealed in Zhu et al (2022), where they combined male and female genitalia with DNA barcodes. This confirmed the importance of female genitalia in species delimitation of this genus.…”