86 
Psyche 
[June 
Hebard (1919) described a specimen of Lissoblatta flabellata 
(Saussure) which was carrying a partially extruded odtheca in a 
horizontal position, and another female of the same species with an 
ootheca that was slightly less extruded than the above specimen but 
with the suture dorsad. Hebard concluded that “The position in 
which the odtheca is carried would, from this evidence, again appear 
to have little or no significance in systematic work in the Blattidae.” 
Unfortunately, this conclusion was based on how the odtheca hap- 
pened to be carried when the female was collected and preserved. 
This is also true of Karny’s (1924) and Bey-Bienko’s (1950) obser- 
vations that the odtheca of Ectobius is carried with the keel upright; 
prior to its deposition the odtheca is rotated in species of this genus 
(Brown, 1952; Roth and Willis, 1957). 
The manner in which the odtheca is carried while it is being formed 
is unimportant taxonomically since it is the same in all cockroaches. 
How the egg case is carried at the time it is being deposited is signifi- 
cant taxonomically and important for understanding the evolution of 
ovoviviparity and viviparity. Dried museum specimens cannot always 
be used to determine whether or not rotation of the odtheca takes 
place. If, in a museum specimen, the odtheca is carried vertically in 
the vestibulum, it does not necessarily mean that this is its position 
when it is deposited. The danger of using museum specimens in de- 
termining rotation was emphasized when I examined specimens in the 
Rehn and Hebard collection at The Academy of Natural Sciences of 
Philadelphia. A specimen of Cariblatta minima Hebard had the 
odtheca oriented with the keel laterad. This may have been the speci- 
men which Hebard (1917) used in claiming that C. minima rotated 
its egg case. It was apparent that the egg case had been glued on the 
female, and in doing so it was reoriented when inserted into the 
female’s vestibulum. Roth and Willis (1954) found, by observing 
living females, that the odtheca of Cariblatta is not rotated prior to 
Explanation of Plate 15 
Figures 1-4. Females of Blattaria carrying oothecae. Fig. 1 . Maoriblatta 
novae-seelandiae (Brunner) (Blattidae) (formerly Platyzosteria novae- 
seelandiae Brunner; Princis, 1966). No rotation, (X 2.0). Fig. 2. Ischnop- 
tera deropeltiformis (Blattellidae : Blattellinae) . Advanced rotation, 
(X 3.6). Fig. 3. Blattella germanica (Blattellidae: Blattellinae). Advanced 
rotation, ( ca X 4.9). Fig. 4. Dendroblatta sobrina (Blattellidae: Plectop- 
terinae). Aberrant “rotation” resulting from the female having difficulty 
in depositing the ootheca. This species does not normally rotate its ootheca. 
(X 5.7) 
(Figs. 1 and 2 from Roth and Willis, 1960) 
