Xestoblatta agautierae Grandcolas, 1992

Evangelista, Dominic A., Chan, Kimberly, Kaplan, Kayla L., Wilson, Megan M. & Ware, Jessica L., 2015, The Blattodeas. s. (Insecta, Dictyoptera) of the Guiana Shield, ZooKeys 475, pp. 37-87 : 52-53

Taxon classification Animalia Blattodea Ectobiidae

Xestoblatta agautierae Grandcolas, 1992

Materials.

Adult ♂.

Voucher number: DEKBO0827.

Collection locale. Wilson’s pond trail (Honey pond trail), Karanambu Ranch, Rupununi, Guyana.

GPS: 3°44'42.36"N, 59°19'15.21"W.

Collection date: 10 - June - 2013.

Collectors. Dominic A. Evangelista, Oswin Ambrose, Susan George, and Megan M. Wilson.

Adult ♀.

Voucher number: DEKBO0826.

Collection locale. Forest Island “Darwin”, Karanambu Ranch, Rupununi, Guyana.

GPS: 3°47'47.62"N, 59°22'6.77"W.

Collection date: 14 - June - 2013.

Collectors. Dominic A. Evangelista, Oswin Ambrose, Susan George, and Megan M. Wilson.

Collection/ecological information.

Both specimens above were collected in pitfall traps baited with beer in the forests of the Rupununi savannah.

Morphological identification.

The left genital phallomere, right genital phallomere, absence of a dorsal tergal gland and body coloration match closely with the species description ( Grandcolas 1992a). The styli differ slightly to the illustrations in the original description in that the left stylus of our specimen is shorter and originates more medially. The female was associated to the male by comparison of gross morphology and body coloration. See Figure 11 for photos of adult male and adult female.

Collection/ecological information for other specimens not reported here.

We collected many individuals of this species from most forested areas surrounding Karanambu Ranch. We collected only one individual of this species in a similar trap at the edge of a forest, near open savannah. We found this species and Xestoblatta berenbaumae sp. n. to be extremely abundant in their respective localities (>100 individuals of each collected). However, both are previously unreported for Guyana. We believe this can be attributed to the fact that we used beer and fermenting fruit to bait out pitfall traps. As Gurney (1939) reports, Xestoblatta Hebard, 1916 were rare in collections until the contributions of an entomologist trapping fruit flies in Panama. We can speculate that these fruit flies were also collected with some sort of aromatic bait (as this is common for fruit fly trapping) that attracted the Xestoblatta Hebard, 1916 as by-catch.

Known geographic distribution.

Guyana (new record) and French Guiana.