Melanozosteria nitida Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865

Liao, Shuran, Wang, Zongqing & Che, Yanli, 2019, A new genus and a new species in the subfamily Polyzosteriinae (Blattodea, Blattidae) from China, ZooKeys 852, pp. 85-100 : 93-94

Melanozosteria nitida Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865

Diagnosis.

Body broad oval and reddish brown to black. Pronotum slightly arched, surface with punctation. Vestigial tegmina sectorial with punctation, separated from mesonotum for nearly whole length, hind wings absent. Surface with punctation. Angles of T2-T7 protruded and sharp. The medial aspects to the styli with stubby and sharp spines.

Redescription.

Measurements.

Male, pronotum: length × width 7.4 × 12.5 mm, overall length: 26.1 mm.

Body uniformly deep reddish brown to black (Figure 4A, B, F, G). Eyes and ocelli yellowish white. Margin of clypeus and labrum dark brown. Vertex and frons black. Antennae brown or black, middle joints creamy-white (Figure 4D). Pronotum, tegmina, abdomen, legs and cerci all uniformly deep reddish brown to black (Figure 4C).

Body large, broad oval and convex, surface shining. Pronotum slightly arched, surface with punctation. Anterior margin of pronotum roundly protruded, and posterior margin straight (Figure 4C). Tegmina vestigial, sectorial, and separated from mesonotum, surface with punctation. Angles of metanotum protruded. Hind wings absent. Surface of all terga shining and with punctation; angles of T2-T7 protruded and sharp, T9 not protruded (Figure 4A, F). Legs short and thick. Fore coxae with slightly punctation; front femora Type A2 (anterior with two long spines, posterior with many small and slightly equal spines). Tibiae hair-brushes; hind tibiae with a row of spines, hind metatarsus with pulvillus occupying one-quarter to one-third of its length, remainder of ventral surface with spines (Figure 4E). All pulvilli large, claws symmetrical (Figure 4E). Supra-anal plate long, symmetrical and quadrilateral, side edge at gradient, angles of posterior round, the middle of posterior margin concave and with hair. Cerci thick, with blurry segmentation and the terminal segment spinous distally (Figure 4F, G, L). Subgenital plate nearly quadrilateral, short. The medial aspects to the styli with stubby and sharp spines (Figure 4I).

Male genitalia.

Left phallomere includes L1, L2, and L3. L1 with three parts (a, b, c). L1a slightly sclerotized, posterior not sclerotized, membranous and blunt. L1b more sclerotized and posterior sharp. L1c anterior slightly sclerotized and posterior blunt membrane. L2 includes L2d and L2v. L2d with a well-sclerotized, strongly denticulate in anterior margin, while the posterior of the sclerite becomes more delicate and ends in a sharp point; L2v usually single, L3 is a simple hook, but the posterior divides into two small forks which resemble an elephant’s nose (Figure 4J, 4M). Right phallomere includes R1, R2, and R3. R1 large, elongate, foot-like with broad down- turned “thumb” and 5-6 strongly denticulate on medial edge, R2a long, fairly broad, tapering slightly towards medial corner; R2b shorter, more strongly sclerotized and tapering to long narrow elongation. R3 with structure of folded sclerite (Figure 4K, 4M).

Materials examined.

1 male, CHINA, Guangxi Prov., Shangsi, Nadang, 15-XI-1958, Dexiang Gu & Jinting Liang leg.

Type specimen examined.

Lectotype of Polyzosteria nitida , male, Ternate (Natural History Museum Vienna), "Ternate Jeynalle CoII. Br. V. W.", “LECTOTYPE”, "LECTOTYPE of Polyzosteria nitida Brunn. Selected by KHL Key, 1963."; holotype of Periplaneta polita , male, Taiwan (Natural History Museum), “Holotype”, " Periplaneta polita Walker", "BMNH (E) #878036", presented by Beccaloni (2014).

Remarks.

We compared the lectotype of M. nitida (from Ternate, Indonesia) with the specimen from Guangxi and found there are minor differences between them: the styli are straight in the Guangxi individual (Figure 4I), but in the lectotype of M. nitida , slightly bent (Figure 4F, G). We also compared the genitalia between the Guangxi individual and the illustration in Mackerras (1968a); they share the typical characters of L1b spinous projection and serration along the margin of L2d, but they are also different in the following characteristics: 1) the terminal of L3 divided into two small forks, which resemble an elephant’s nose in the Guangxi individual (Figure 4J), while in the Mackerras (1968a) individual, L3 has one blunt hook (Figure 4M); 2) L2v broad and sclerotized, and posterior of L3 membranous in the Guangxi individual (Figure 4J), while L2v thin, long and with sharp sclerotized terminus in the Mackerras (1968a) individual (Figure 4M). And the variation of supra-anal plate between samples from Queensland and New Guinea were treated as intraspecific differences in different locations ( Mackerras 1968a). Considering Mackerras (1968a) also recorded that the M. nitida is a widely distributed tropical species from Taiwan, Malaya, Moluccas, and Philippines, and due to our specimens being inadequate, the minor difference in the Guangxi individual and the lectotype of M. nitida are temporarily considered as the intraspecific differences of different populations.

Geographical distribution.

Australia, Philippines, Malaysia, New Guinea, New Caledonia, New Zealand, China, Thailand.