Spelaeoblatta thailandica, Vidlička & Vršanský & Shcherbakov, 2003

Vidlička, Ľubomír, Vršanský, Peter & Shcherbakov, Dmitrij E., 2003, Two new troglobitic cockroach species of the genus Spelaeoblatta (Blattaria: Nocticolidae) from North Thailand, Journal of Natural History 37 (1), pp. 107-114 : 111-112

Spelaeoblatta thailandica n. sp.

( figure 5 A–C)

Type material. HOLOTYPE: ³, north-west Thailand: Red Cliff Cave (Mae Hong

Son Province, Nam Lang region, 19°36∞N, 98°04∞E), 24 March 1997, N. Myuge

(H. Miore) leg., coll. SNM-NHMB. Etymology. The specific name refers to the country of origin.

Description

Size (mm). Body length: ³ 8.75; pronotum length×width, ³ 2.4×3.4; forewing length, ³ 5.0.

Male ( figure 5 A–C). Head longitudinal, oval, partly visible from above; compound eyes strongly reduced but present; ocelli absent; apex of fifth maxillary palpomere rounded. Antennae long, slender, about 60 segments, scapus and third segment long, other segments markedly shorter. Pronotum unicoloured, parabolic, the middle of hind margin straight, lateral corners obliquely truncated. Tegmina reaching to the end of fifth tergite, obliquely truncate, surface covered by rather sparse trichia, especially on apical part of venation. Hind wings reduced, only lobate, reaching to a half of the metanotum length. Ten abdominal terga visible. The posterior margin of T2 medially concave. T3 has a medial, inverted Y-like glandular fossa, with hind margin medially elongated and elevated. T4 with a small medial indentation, and T4–T7 with collar-like elevations on the hind margins. Hind margin of supraanal plate is oval with medial shallow depression. Cerci are composed of 10 segments, surface dorsally smooth, ventrally with long setae, apically with long sensilla. Subgenital plate symmetrical with two similar setose styles, interstylar margin plane contains small medial elevation ( figure 5C ). The genital hook on the left side, the apex strongly curved.

Colour: the specimen is pale brownish yellow, nearly translucent.

Male nymph. Size (mm): body length: 6.9; pronotum length×width, 1.9×2.5; front femur length, 1.9. Head with compound eyes having approximately 100 separated ommatidia that become smaller towards the antennae. Wing pads on meso- and metanotum markedly long. Anteroventral margin of front femur with three large proximal spines followed by a row of piliform spinules (type B); tarsal claws 1

simple, symmetrical, pulvilli and arolia absent. T3 medially elongated as in the adult male. Subgenital plate with two small styles.

Remarks

The species S. thailandica and S. gestroi were only described from a single male and a single female, respectively. So far, their opposite sexes are not known. Until the male of S. gestroi is found, we cannot exclude a possibility that S. thailandica is a male of S. gestroi . However, S. gestroi was captured about 170 km SW from the locality inhabited by S. thailandica . Known cave-dwelling cockroaches have only very limited areas of distribution ( Vandel, 1965; Izquierdo and Oromi, 1994), thus we believe that both described sexes are very probably different species.

Figures

FIG. 5. Spelaeoblatta thailandica, male. (A) Habitus; (B) abdomen (lateral view); (C) subgenital plate (dorsal view).