15 



VIII.— On a Collection of Blattidae from 

 Northern Sarawak, chiefly Mt. Murud and 

 Mt. Dulit. By R. Hanitsch, ph.d. 



This collection of Blattidae from Northern Sarawak, chiefly 

 from Mt. Murud and Mt. Dulit, made by Dr. E. Mjoberg 

 between October 1922 and January 1923, includes many 

 novelties, as was to be expected from a part of the country 

 so little explored. Out of 55 species obtained, no fewer than 

 24 have proved new to science, and 7 species form new records 

 for Borneo, viz., Hemithyrsocera palUata Fab., Anaplecta 

 malayensis Shelford, .4, obscura Shelford, Phyllodromia con- 

 tigiia Walker, EpiJampra circumdata Hanitsch, Catara minor 

 Krauss, and Panesthia sinnata Saussure. Also one new genus, 

 Ctenoneura (subfam. Corydinae) has had to be established. 

 The collection is also remarkable for the almost entire absence 

 of cosmopolitan forms. Though the ubiquitous Phyllodromia 

 germanica L. is represented by three specimens from Mt. 

 Dulit, it was almost a matter of relief that Bhitta orientalis 

 L., Stylopyga rhombifolia Stoll, Periplaneta americana L., 

 P. atistralasiae Fab.. Leucopliaea surinamensis L., Nauphoeta 

 cinerea Olivier, etc., were not met with, the explanation, no 

 doubt, being that the white man with these hangers-on to 

 civilization had not yet penetrated into these regions. Of the 

 species described here for the first time, the largest and most 

 beautiful form is Morplina mjohergi, of which no fewer than 

 13 specimens were taken on Mt. Dulit. It is a remarkable 

 fact that an insect so striking and apparently common in that 

 locality, should have escaped notice so long, due either to its 

 very restricted occurrence, or to the country having been so 

 little explored yet. 



In my two papers on "Malayan Blattidae"* I gave parti- 

 culars as to the number and distribution of the described 



*Part I, Journal, Straits Branch, R. Asiatic Society, No. 69, pp. 17- 

 178, 7 plates (1915); Part II. Journal, Malayan Branch, R. Asiatic 

 Society, Vol. I, pp. 393-474, 2 plates (1923). 



Sar. Mus. Jouru., No. 8, 1925, 



