DESCRIPTIONS OF NEW AUSTRALASIAN BLATTIDAE WITH A NOTE 

 ON THE BLATTID COXA. 



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



(Seven Text-figures.) 



[Read 26th July, 1922.] 



In this paper will be found descriptions of nine new cockroaches. Three 

 are additions to the large genus Platyzosteria Brunner von Wattenwyl, two of 

 them from Queensland, and one from Western Australia; five are placed in 

 CutiUa Stal, a genus which will probably be found to embrace many more species 

 than the sixteen now included in it; and one is referred doubtfully to the genus 

 Zonioploca Stal. 



Note on the Blattid Coxa. 



Most of the Blattidae spend their lives in narrow places such as under 

 bark, under fallen wood, in crevices, or under stones, leaves, or rubbish, neces- 

 sitating a depression of form characteristic of the family, in the production 

 of which the middle and posterior coxae take part. When the leg is drawn up 

 with the femur flexed on the coxa the thickness of the femur and coxa together 

 would add considerably to the depth of the insect; so to obviate this, the part of 

 the coxa (Text-fig. 1, b) adjacent to the flexed femur is grooved out to receive 

 it. This groove, it is suggested, should be called the coxal groove; the thickened 

 part (Text-flg. 1, a) internal to the groove the coxal ridge; and the flattened 

 part (Text-fig. 1, c) external to it the coxal border. The coxal border is quite 

 flat, and is frequently of a pale colour, a point of considerable taxonomic im- 

 portance, and the pale colour is usually exhibited on both the dorsal and the 

 ventral aspects. The coxal ridge is always thick, the thickest part of the coxa, 

 its thickness varying somewhat in different genera, and the slope of the coxal 

 groove varies with it. The distal part of the coxal ridge terminates externally 

 in a baekwardly-produced flattened lobe, rounded at its apex, which is the coxal 

 process (Text-fig. 1, d) ; this varies somewhat in size and shape, and sometimes, 

 as in Platyzosteria cingidata mihi, and P. babindae mihi {infra) is distinctively 



