23 



According to their morphological arrangement, the following groups of muscles can be 

 distinguished: 



Phallomere muscles: Intrinsic muscles of the phallomere complex. All muscles of this 

 group will be studied. Three subgroups will be distinguished: 



a) Intrinsic muscles of the left complex. 



b) Intrinsic muscles of the right phallomere. 



c) Muscles connecting the left complex and the right phallomere. 



Phallomero-sternal muscles: Muscles connecting parts of the phallomere complex or the 

 ventral and lateral walls of the genital pouch with the subgenital plate. All muscles of this 

 group will be studied. 



Ventral muscles: Muscles connecting successive sternites (mainly the respective anterior 

 margins). These muscles are, compared with the more anterior segments, quite reduced in 

 the postabdomen. Only the muscles belonging to abdominal segment 9 (running from 

 stemite 9 to the - possibly obsolete - stemite 10) will be studied. 



Dorsal muscles: Muscles connecting successive tergites. In some species lateral parts of 

 the dorsal muscles of segment 9 have shifted in a way that they can hardly be recognised 

 as dorsal muscles but seem to be muscles from the tergite to the phallomere complex. 

 Only these parts of the dorsal muscles will be studied. 



Dorsoventral muscles: Muscles connecting tergite and sternite of the same segment. If 

 there really are vestiges of appendages contained in the subgenital plate, some of the 

 muscles included here might be muscles from the tergite to the appendages. These muscles 

 will be considered only in part. 



Rectal muscles: Muscles from the ectodermal rectum to e.g. the anterior margin of the 

 subgenital plate, the tergite 10, or the paraprocts, which function as dilators or suspensors 

 of the rectum. These have in most cases clearly demarcated insertion areas on the 

 respective parts of the exoskeleton, but the fibers diverge like a fan on their way to the 

 rectum, and the rectal insertions are composed of many small insertion areas, which are 

 often widely separated from each other. Only those muscles inserting on the subgenital 

 plate will be considered. 



Muscles of the ejaculatory duct: The ejaculatory duct is covered by a mat of fibers 

 showing a ring-like, spiral, or longitudinal arrangement. This musculature will not be 

 investigated in detail. 



4. TERMINOLOGIES AND ABBREVIATIONS 

 4.1. The terminology for the sclerites of the phallomere complex 

 Mantodea 



The most elaborate terminology is that of LaGreca (1954). It is the only one that is based 

 on quite detailed investigations of phallomere morphology and that has already been 

 applied to a broader sample of species. However, some disadvantage lies in the fact that 

 LaGreca uses some names for sclerites as well as for the formative elements of the cuticle 



