ORTHOPTERA 



FAM. BLATTID/E 



SUBFAM. ECTOBINiE 

 by R. SHELFORD 



WITH I COLOURED PLATE 





he Blattidae form a family of the order Orthoptera characterised by the deflexed head, 

 the body typically flattened dorso-ventrally, the wings, when present, with the posterior 

 part capable of folding like a fan, the three pairs of legs differing but little from one 

 another and modified for running, the coxae large and flattened. 



Characters. — The head is so carried that the vertex is directed forward, the mouth backward 

 and the front downward. It is joined to the thorax by a slender neck, in the thin integument of which 

 occur some chitinised sclerites. The frons is separated from the clypeus by a fine angulate suture. The 

 mouth-parts are of a typically mandibulate type, but little use of them has been made in classification: 

 the labrum is well marked off from the clypeus by a transverse joint, it is orbicular or triangular in shape : 

 the mandibles are toothed; the maxillae, consisting of cardo, stipes, lacinia and galea, bear one pair of 

 five-jointed palpi ; the submentum is very large and forms the greater part of the under surface of the 

 head, the labium is deeply cleft and carries a pair of three-jointed palpi, the lingua is a large lobe lying 

 over the cleft of the labium . 



The antenna are long, slender and multi-articulate, usually ciliated; in some genera (e. g. Pseudo- 

 mops, Thyrsocera, Hypnorna) the basal half of the antenna is incrassated and plumose(i). 



The eyes are usually large and reniform; the}' are placed on the sides of the head : in many genera 

 they are approximated on the vertex; in the cave-haunting Nocticola they are reduced or absent. Close to 

 the insertions of the antennas occur a pair of small circular areas, yellow in colour, known as the fenestra 

 or ocelliform spots; in the males of Corydia and Polyphaga these are replaced by true ocelli. 



r] In the genus Psendomops tins character is confined to the female sex. 



