DOI: 10.3897/asp.82.e96452

Authors: Shota Shimizu, Ryuichiro Machida

Abstract: Abstract We examine and describe the embryonic development of 13 species from eight families of Dermaptera, i.e., all families excluding Karschiellidae, Hemimeridae, and Arixeniidae: Diplatys flavicollis (Diplatyidae), Cranopygia sp., Echinosoma sp., and Parapsalis infernalis (Pygidicranidae), Apachyus chartaceus (Apachyidae), Anisolabis maritima and Euborellia pallipes (Anisolabididae), Labidura riparia (Labiduridae), Forficula scudderi and Anechura harmandi (Forficulidae), Paralabella curvicauda (Spongiphoridae), and Proreus simulans and chelisochid gen. sp. (Chelisochidae). We also provide new findings on the reproductive biology of the Pygidicranidae and the postembryonic development of the Apachyidae. Based on information from the present and previous studies, we reconstruct the developmental and reproductive-biological groundplan for Dermaptera and discuss phylogenetic issues related to this order. We confirmed that Dermaptera possesses the embryological features (related to mode of embryonic formation and manner of blastokinesis) that are regarded as autapomorphies of Polyneoptera. Eudermaptera is characterized by the extraordinarily great length of the embryo which attains its maximum length in anatrepsis period, the positioning of its posterior end at the egg’s anterior ventral side, the type of egg tooth, and four larval instars. Anisolabididae, Labiduridae, and Eudermaptera share an elongation ratio of embryos in the anatrepsis period (ERE) of 160% or less and a larval instar number of five or less, whereas Protodermaptera is characterized by an ERE of 210% or more, a ratio of embryonic primordium relative to the egg’s longitudinal circumference (IL) of 40% or less, and a larval instar number of six or more. Notably, the ERE, IL, and larval instar number of Apachyidae are within the ranges observed in Protodermaptera.

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DOI: 10.3897/asp.79.e67569

Authors: Horst Bohn, Volker Nehring, Jonathan G. Rodríguez, Klaus-Dieter Klass

Abstract: 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. multisetosa sp. nov. Bohn and Klass, A. paucisetosa sp. nov. Bohn and Klass, A. sinuosocarinata sp. 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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