Litoblatta Hebard 1921
Creators: name: Valverde, Alejandra Del Carmen
name: Crespo, Francisco A.
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Blattodea
Ectobiidae
Litoblatta

description: Litoblatta Hebard, 1921
(Figs. 1–70)
Ischnoptera Brunner von Wattenvyl, 1865: 130 (type species: Ischnoptera brasiliensis Brunner von Wattenvyl, 1865) Litoblatta Hebard 1921: 237
Litoblatta Princis 1969: 876
Litoblatta Rocha e Silva Albuquerque & Aguiar 1975: 235
Diagnosis. Body surface scarcely coated with small hairs. Head under the pronotum, slightly exposed. Eyes and ocelli present, absent in cavernicolous species. The prominent eyes are broad dorsally near the vertex and thinner ventrally near the genae, character more conspicuous in females. Maxillar palpi with 5 segments, the 3 last articles are similar and longer than the basal two. Antennae as long as the body. Pronotum with anterior margin and pronounced posterolateral angles rounded, posterior margin convex, medially slightly projected.
Legs very elongated and slender. Coxa with almost the length of the femur; femur 1, type A 3 – anteroventral margin with 3 long proximal spines, followed by a road of spines progressively shorter and ends with three long apical spines (Roth 2003). Femur II and III with a genicular spine. Tibia II and III similar to the femur in length. Tarsus with four segments. Metatarsi longer or similar to the length of all apical tarsomeres added. Metatarsus, second and third tarsomeres with a double road of spines, fourth tarsomere with pulvilus. Pre-tarsus with symmetrical claws and arolium. Abdomen without specialized tergites. Supra anal plate distally may be produced, straight or sinuous. Female supra anal plate hidden under tergite VII. Paraprocts are laminar, symmetrical in females and asymmetrical in males. Male right paraproct may have short conical spines in the internal basal margin, long spines in a row along the inner border, very long and grouped spines, whose apices converge or diverge distally, placed somewhat beyond the inner basal border. Male left paraproct hook shaped.
Styli: right stylus with conical short spines with variable arrangement and the left stylus generally without spines.
Male Genitalia (Figs. 60–67). The left complex L is subdivided in L2 and L3 (Gutiérrez 2005), L4U is also present (Fig. 20). The right phallomere R is a complex of sclerites: R1P, R1S+R2, R3 and R4. R4 has the shape of a tobacco smoking pipe and articulates with R2. R1P articulates with R1S and includes caudally a convex scale zone, sz.
Female genitalia (Figs. 52–54). The cerci bases are surrounded by tergum X (TX) laterally and followed by T IX. Tergal extensions of tergites VIII (tg) and IX (te) are in contact with gonocoxa VIII (first valvifer vf VIII + basivalvula bv). Gonangulum (gg) articulates with the tergal projections and the lateral part of the posterior lobe of second valvifer ring (pl) (Klass, 1998). Internally the three pair of valves (v I, v II and v III) are observed.
The ventral chamber wall is covered by a membranous cuticle with folds. To see the spermathecal plate, the laterosternal shelf and the vestibular sclerite (Fig. 52, 54 a-b) it was necessary to perform an additional dissection.
Oothecae (Figs. 46–47). Sclerotized, lateral walls smooth, with a distinct keel along the dorsal margin. Egg chamber with 18– 20 eggs. Length 5.53–5.62 mm and height 3.44–3.61 mm. The alcohol where the oothecae were stored evaporated. Therefore, the shapes of the side walls, somehow collapsed as can be seen in the figures.
description: Published as part of Valverde, Alejandra Del Carmen & Crespo, Francisco A., 2021, Four new species of Litoblatta from Argentina with a key to species based on males (Blattaria: Ectobiidae: Blattellinae), pp. 553-568 in Zootaxa 4941 (4) on page 554, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4941.4.5, http://zenodo.org/record/4595688