Audreia Shelford, 1910

Leonid N. Anisyutkin, 2016, New and little known Epilamprinae (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae) from the collections of the Muséum d’histoire naturelle de Genève and the Zoological Institute RAS, Saint Petersburg. Part 2, Revue suisse de Zoologie 123 (1), pp. 139-152 : 144

Genus Audreia Shelford, 1910

Type species: Calolampra carinulata Saussure, 1895 , by subsequent designation.

Remarks: The genus Audreia was diagnosed in the original description as follows: “Differs from Calolampra by the reduced tegmina of the male, which fail to reach the apex of abdomen and by the tegmina of the female, which are sub-quadrate or absent” and originally included 8 species (arranged as in the original description): A. pulchra Shelford, 1910 , A. truncata (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865) , A. biolleyi (Saussure, 1895) , A. carinulata (Saussure, 1895) , A. cicatricosa Rehn, 1903 , A. hamiltoni Rehn, 1903 , A. heusseriana (Saussure, 1864) and A. catharina Shelford, 1910 ( Shelford, 1910, p. 11). The type species was not designated by Shelford. Audreia carinulata was subsequently selected as the type species by Hebard (1920).

Later, Roth (1970) considered the genus Audreia in detail and restricted it to a single species – A. carinulata . In 1976 Gurney and Roth wrote: “The type species of Audreia , Calolampra carinulata Saussure , designated by Hebard (1920: 92), appears generically distinct from Epilampra .” ( Gurney, Roth, 1976, p. 80). Nevertheless, Audreia was synonymized with Epilampra by Fisk & Schal (1981) and restored by Lopes et al. (2010). Later, doubts were expressed about Audreia belonging to the tribe Epilamprini ( Lopes et al., 2014).

The detailed description of the male genital structures of A. carinulata (see description below) suggest a strong similarity with those of the genera Morphna Shelford, 1910 , Rhabdoblatta, Kirby, 1903 and other genera of the tribe Morphnini McKittrick, 1964. There is a similar structure of the right phallomere and sclerite L2D (compare Figs 46-55 and Anisyutkin, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2014). In the author’s opinion, the genus Audreia undoubtedly belongs to the tribe Morphnini.

Included species: At the present time only the type species, A. carinulata (Saussure, 1895) , can be undoubtedly included in the genus.