MORGAN HEBARD I 73 



BLATTA Linnaeus 



1758. Blatta Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, i, p. 424. 



1825. Kakerlac Latreille, Fam. Nat. Regne Anim., p. 411. 



1833. Steleopyga Fischer, Bull. Soc. Nat. Moscou, vi, p. 356. 



1846. Stylopyga Fischer, Ent. Ross., Orth., p. 68. (Emendation ior Steleopyga.) 



The genus includes numerous species, the majority of which are 

 tropical in distribution. 



Genotype: Blatta orientalis Linnaeus, subsequently indicated 

 by Latreille in iSoj.-"'-' 



Generic Characters. — Sexes dissimilar. Antennae elongate, seta- 

 ceous. Pronotum roundly trapezoidal, not covering vertex of 

 head. Tegmina and wings of male variable, not attaining the 

 apex of the abdomen. Tegmina of female, in the majority of 

 species, squamiform or quadrate-**"; wings absent, vestigial or 

 greatly reduced.-^' Yentro-cephalic margins of cephalic femora 

 supplied with few, stout, not very elongate, slightly recurved 

 spines, decreasing slightly in length distad and followed by a series 

 of slightly shorter spines, terminating in three elongate spines in 

 increasing length ratio distad. Other femoral margins supplied 

 with numerous stout, elongate, straight spines; those on the caudal 

 margins distinctly the longer. External tibial spines tri-seriately 

 arranged. Tarsi elongate, caudal metatarsus longer than suc- 

 ceeding joints. First four tarsal joints each supplied with a small 

 distal pulvillus. Arolia absent. 



Blatta orientalis Linnaeus. (Plate \'IL figures i and 2.) 



1758. [Blatta] orientalis Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, i, p. 424. [America; the 

 East; Russia; Stockholm, Sweden; Finland.] 



The established synonyms of the species are Blatta cidinaris De 

 Geer, Blatta ferrugineofiisca Gronov and Blatta badia Saussure. 



'^" Gen. Crustac. et Ins., iii, p. 83. 



2*° In one species before us, agaboides (Gerstaecker), the tegmina and wings vary from 

 decidedly reduced, to fully developed, in both sexes. This is unusual in the Blattinae, 

 the vast majority of species showing far less individual variation in the organs of flight 

 than is shown by numerous species of the Pseudomopinae. 



-*' In females of the species having the usual type of squamiform tegmina, the wings 

 are absent. 



MEM. .AM. ENT. SOC, 2. 



