^°''^-] Shaw, Australian Blallidce. 103 



AUSTRALIAN BLATTIDJi. 



Part I. — Notes and Preliminary Descriptions of New 



Species. 



By Eland Shaw, M.R.C.S. 



{Read before the Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, 12th Oct., 1914.) 

 The National Museum, Melbourne, recently placed in my hands 

 for determination a number of Australian Blattid.e, and 

 amongst them are some new species. In my own collection 

 there are also several species which I consider to be new, and 

 it had been my intention to have included them all in a more 

 extended paper which has been in preparation for some time. 

 Circumstances, however, prevent my going on with this for 

 the moment, and, as it is advisable that the publication of 

 the descriptions of some of the new species should not be 

 delayed, the present paper is written ; and, the work being 

 done hurriedly, I crave indulgence for the many faults which 

 it contains. I wish to express my thanks to my friend Mr. 

 F. P. Spry for kindly reading the proof for me in my absence, 

 and I hope to deal with the rest of the material under considera- 

 tion on my return from Papua. 



The word "Type" is used to signify only the actual speci- 

 mens from which a description is written, and its use prohibits 

 the use of the word '' cotype " in respect of the same species. 

 By " Cotype " I mean the actual specimens from which a 

 description is written, where more than one specimen has 

 been used to describe from ; and the use of the word " cotype " 

 prohibits the use of the word " type " in respect of the same 

 species. 



The expression " an immature " applied to Orthoptera I use 

 to signify the insect in any stage after emergence from the egg 

 up to its last moult. 



Escala circumducta, Walker. 



Blatta circumducta. Walk., Cat. Blatt. B. M., Suppl., p 142 



(1869). 

 hscala circumdttcta, Shell., Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1906, 



p. 239, pi. XV., hg. 4. 

 Lohu'ptera circumcincta, Tepper, Trans. Roy. Soc. S. Aust., 1893, 



P- 37- 

 Mr. Shelford, in Trans. Ent. Soc. Lond., 1906, p. 240, writing 

 of the genus Escala, says : — " I have seen no female examples 

 of the genus " ; and in Faun. Sud-West Austr., Band. II., 

 Lief 9, p. 133 (1909), writing of Loboptera circumcincta, Tepper, 

 and L. diiodecemsignata, Tepper, he says : — " The males of 

 these two species must be extremely rare, as they have never 

 been discovered, though the females are common enough." 



