1953] Nutting — Reproduction in Blab er us 7 
some of the more common roaches (see Roth, 1952), except 
that no dorsal glands are known which attract and engage 
the female as in Blattella. The male vibrates his antennae 
and goes through brisk quivering motions, sometimes raised 
up on his legs. After contact stimuli from the interested 
female he raises his wings, while the female advances over 
his abdomen as far as his raised wings to the “female supe- 
rior pose”. As the male makes contact with the female’s 
genitalia, they simultaneously turn in opposite directions 
to complete copulation in the “false-linear position” which 
is typical for the roaches. The pair observed by Saupe re- 
mained together for 80 minutes, but I have noted many 
pairs together for four hours and more which is much 
longer than is usual for most roaches. 
Many texts list the occurrence of spermatophores in cer- 
tain members of the Thysanura, Odonata, Neuroptera, Lep- 
idoptera, Coleoptera, and several subgroups of the Orthop- 
tera. Until recently, oddly enough, it was not generally 
known that this method of sperm transfer is also used by 
at least some of the blattids. Zabinski (1933) first described 
and figured the spermatophore for Blatta orientalis, while 
Qadri (1938) reported some conflicting observations on 
spermatophore formation for the same species. Hagan 
(1941) mentioned the genital pouch as a receptacle for 
the spermatophore in Diploptera, but did not describe 
it. The spermatophore of Periplaneta americana was de- 
scribed and figured in position by Gupta (1947). The 
formation of the spermatophore of Blattella germanica is 
described and discussed by Khalifa (1950). Roth (1952) 
presented notes on the spermatophores of Blattella, Blatta, 
and Periplaneta. Recently Van Wyk (1952) described the 
spermatophore of Leucophaea maderae. The present obser- 
vations on Blaberus now make a total of five subgroups of 
the Blattaria which are known to form spermatophores. 
This strengthens Khalifa’s presumption that spermato- 
phores are of general occurrence among the roaches. 
Figs. 1 and 2 show the position of the spermatophore 
(Sph) in Blaberus shortly after copulation. The freshly 
deposited spermatophore is a tailed, pearly-white spheroid, 
about 3.5 mm. in diameter. A clear, jelly-like mass fills 
