30 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I4I 



Theganopteryx straminea 



Northern Kenya. — Taken at three stations in desert grass and 

 thorn bush (Kevan and Chopard, 1954). 



Tivia brunnea 



Northern Kenya. — In open sandy, riverine bush (scanty ground 

 cover among acacia trees and doum palms) (Kevan and Chopard, 

 1954). 



Tivia fulva 



Northern Kenya. — In desert grass and thorn bush; distributed in 

 semidesert areas south of Sahara ; the apterous females probably 

 live buried in sand (Kevan and Chopard, 1954). 



Tivia obscura 



Northern Kenya. — In desert grass and thorn bush (Kevan and 

 Chopard, 1954). 



AQUATIC HABITATS 



The so-called aquatic or amphibious cockroaches are all members 

 of the subfamily Epilamprinae (Chopard, 1938). These forms are 

 not nearly as aquatic as water beetles or aquatic Hemiptera, but in 

 their relations to water they behave differently from nonamphibious 

 cockroaches, which tend to avoid water except for drinking. There 

 are apparently no special morphological characteristics that distin- 

 guish amphibious cockroaches ( Shelf ord, 1907, 1909a; Chopard, 

 1938), although Takahashi (1926) listed several characters that he 

 considered made Opisthoplatia maculafa adapted for an aquatic life: 

 (i) Back of body easily wetted; (2) long hairs on underside of 

 thorax trap air ; (3) terminal abdominal spiracles open into tubes that 

 extend rearward ; (4) long hairs on ventral surfaces of cerci "pro- 

 tect" terminal abdominal spiracles. Annandale (1906) also suggested 

 that the position of the posterior abdominal spiracles, at the base of 

 tubes that project rearward from beneath the seventh tergite, are an 

 adaptation to an aquatic life. However, as Shelf ord (1907) and 

 Chopard (1938) have pointed out, this same feature may be observed 

 in many terrestrial cockroaches. The legs of amphibious cockroaches 

 are similar to those of nonaquatic species and are not modified for 

 swimming (Shelf ord, 1909a; Takahashi, 1926). 



Biological observations have been made on relatively few species, 

 but representatives of at least six genera occur in quasi-aquatic habi- 

 tats. Strictly speaking, these cockroaches live on land at the edges of 

 streams or pools and spend relatively brief periods in the water. A 



