88 
Psyche 
[June 
deposition. At the Academy, I also saw pinned specimens of Dendro- 
blatta sohrina Rehn ( Plectopterinae) , Chorisoneura barticae Hebard 
(Plectopterinae), and Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister (Blattinae), 
each bearing an ootheca with the keels facing laterad. These genera 
do not normally rotate their oothecae (see below). In the Choriso- 
neura female the abdomen was obviously abnormally flattened and 
the ootheca must have been “rotated” artificially when this occurred. 
Rotation of the ootheca is an important behavioral taxonomic 
character in the Blattellidae and may be used to separate the non- 
rotators ( Anaplectinae and Plectopterinae) from the rotators (Blat- 
tellinae, Ectobiinae, and Nyctiborinae) (McKittrick, 1964). The 
absence of rotation led to a study which resulted in the erection of 2 
new genera, Agmoblatta and Isoldaia , of Plectopterinae; these were 
formerly Blattellinae, in the genus Loboptera (Gurney and Roth, 
1966). According to Hebard (1919) Lissoblatta flabellata rotates 
its ootheca. Princis (personal communication) claims that Lissoblatta 
is a synonym of Riatia. McKittrick ( 1964) placed Riatia in the non- 
rotating Plectopterinae. Hebard may have erred in his interpretation 
of the position in which the ootheca was carried, or the generic 
placement of this genus requires additional study. 
I place the following species, whose genera are included in the 
Blattellidae (Princis, i960) in the Plectopterinae because the females 
do not rotate their oothecae: Dendroblatta sobrina, Ellipsidion affine 
Hebard, Euphyllodro\mia angustata (Latreille), Latiblattella sp. nov. 
I would also place Celeriblattina Johns in this subfamily because, 
according to Johns (personal communication), it does not rotate its 
ootheca. The following Blattellidae (Princis, i960) rotate their 
oothecae and I include them in the Blattellinae: Chorisia fulvotestacea 
Princis, Gislenia australica (Brunner), Ischnoptera rufa rufa 
(Degeer), /. panamae Hebard, I. deropeltiformis (Brunner), and 
Nesomylacris relica Rehn and Hefoard ; the following have been 
reported to rotate their oothecae and are therefore included in 
the Blattellinae: Loboptera decipiens (Germar) (Lefeuvre, 1959, 
Gurney and Roth, 1966), Lobopterella dimidiatipes (Bolivar) (Mc- 
Kittrick, 1964, as Loboptera ; Princis (1957) used Loboptera dimi- 
diatipes to erect Lobopterella ), T artaroblatta Bey-Bienko (Bey- 
Bienko, 1950) , 1 gnabolivaria Chopard (Bey-Bienko, 195 o),Aristiger 
histrio (Burmeister) (Karny, 1924, as Hemithyrsocera histrio; 
Princis (personal communication) says that this species is now Aris- 
tiger histrio ), and Par ellipsidion Johns (Johns, 1966). 
I have seen very few instances of “rotation” in Plectopterinae. One 
female of Dendroblatta sobrina (Fig. 4) and 2 females of Lopho- 
