MORGAN HEBARD I 77 



PERIPLANETA Burmeister 



1838. Periplaneta Burmeister, Handb. Ent., ii, abth. ii, pt. i, p. 502. 

 1864. Cacerlaca Saussure, Mem. Hist. Nat. Max., Orth., p. 69. 



The present genus includes numerous species, three of which 

 are generally distributed over the warmer regions of the Earth; 

 these three were included with the original description, two others 

 there given being later placed in other genera. The genus shows 

 its greatest specific numerical abundance in Asiatic and African 

 regions. 



Genotype: Periplaneta americana [Blatta americana] (Lin- 

 naeus), selected by Kirby in 1890.-*'*' 



Generic Characters. — Sexes similar. Antennae very long and 

 slender. Pronotum convex, deflexed laterad, roundly trapezoidal, 

 not covering vertex of head. Latero-caudal angles of mesonotum, 

 and metanotum not produced as slender, membranous processes.-^' 

 Tegmina coriaceous, usually extending beyond the apex of the 

 abdomen ;-«« veins of discoidal and scapular fields, excepting the 

 heavy humeral trunk, equally distinct and frequently branching, 

 the whole radiating and with division between the discoidal and 

 scapular fields not defined beyond the middle portion of the tegmen. 

 Wings with anterior field semi-coriaceous; area of costal veins 

 moderately broad, with costal veins frequently forking; median 

 vein obsolete proximad ; ulnar vein with few, brief, irregular, in- 

 complete rami proximad, forking into many complete distal rami, 

 most of which show subsequent furcation; axillary vein with 

 numerous straight rami. Cerci elongate. IVIale subgenital plate 

 symmetrical, with similar, elongate, slender styles, situated in sym- 

 metrical sockets latero-distad. Limbs elongate and slender. Ceph- 

 alic femora with ventro-cephalic margins armed with a row of 

 heavy, moderately elongate spines, which are slightly longest meso- 

 proximad and are terminated distad by three spines, more elongate 

 in increasing ratio distad; other ventral femoral margins supplied 

 with heavy, elongate spines, these least numerous on the caudal 



-*•' Sci. Proc. R. Dublin Soc, vi, p. 562. 



-*' Such productions are diagnostic for inalos of the genus Pseudoderopcltis, wliich are 

 otherwise similar to males of Periplaneta; the females of that genus, however, show very 

 great differences from the opposite sex. 



-** The tegmina are usually slight !>■ longer in males than in females. 



MEM. AM. ENT. SOC, 2. 



