1966] 
Gurney and Roth — Cockroaches 
201 
along the midline (Fig. 18) made by the upturned medial cleft (Fig. 
19) of the subgenital plate; the cleft serves as a mold as the ootheca 
is formed and extruded posteriorly. The ootheca remains upright 
until deposition, and its keel rests in the medial marginal indentation 
of the supragenital plate. The eggs require water for development, 
and the females usually deposit their oothecae on the moist cotton 
of the water vials. 
Observations were made on the courtship behavior of A gmoblatta. 
A newly emerged female was placed with 2 old males. Initially, the 
males showed only mild interest in the female, but within an hour 
they were actively pursuing and courting her. The males antennated 
and palpated the female and turned with their backs toward her, 
stretching and arching their abdomens and fully exposing the gland 
on the 7th terga. However, the female did not respond by mounting 
and palpating the gland, and the males did not extend their phallo- 
meres and attempt to grasp her genitalia. This behavior is similar 
to that of Blattella germanica (L.) (Roth and Willis, 1952), 
Nauphoeta cinerea (Olivier), and other genera in which the male 
will not attempt to seize the female until she mounts or palpates his 
tergum (Roth and Barth, 1964). The male of A gmoblatta relies 
on antennal contact in pursuing the female; if he loses this contact, 
he seems to wander about haphazardly until he again makes contact, 
turns his back, and courts. Also, the male can discriminate between 
contact with a female and a male; males on touching each other did 
not court. This behavior is very similar to that shown by B. german- 
ica (Roth and Willis, 1952). 
The female we used had not mated 2 hours after the start of ob- 
servations. However, females do mate soon after emergence since 
a pair was seen in copula in the typical opposed position (heads fac- 
ing in opposite directions) though the female was still very light 
in color and less than a day old. Subsequently, on days 13, 20, 25, 
31, and 39, she deposited egg cases. Thereafter she deposited no 
more oothecae though she was kept until 62 days after emerging. 
Isoldaia, new genus 
This genus is similar superficially to A gmoblatta, from which it 
differs primarily in the lack of tergal specialization in the male and 
in the uncleft posterior margin of the female subgenital plate. 
Generic description: Agrees with A gmoblatta except as follows: 
About 10 to 12 piliform spines in apical half of anteroventral margin 
of front femur, in contrast to about 5 to 6 in A gmoblatta; maxillary 
