Distylopyga Bey-Bienko 1965
Creators: name: Anisyutkin, Leonid N.
name: Telnov, Dmitry
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2018
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Blattodea
Blattidae
Distylopyga

description: Genus Distylopyga Bey-Bienko, 1965
Type species: Stylopyga semoni Krauss, 1903. By monotypy.
Note. The genus Distylopyga was described from a single female collected in Cibodas Botanical garden (Java, Indonesia) and initially determined by Bey-Bienko as D. semoni (Krauss, 1903) (Bey-Bienko 1965). The characters listed in the diagnosis of Distylopyga are insufficient to distinguish this genus from other short-winged Blattinae. The specimen studied by Bey-Bienko was expected to be deposited in the collection of Zoological Institute RAS, but it could not be located there during our study.
Distylopyga semoni was described from Tjibodas (now Cibodas), W Java (Krauss 1903) and have complex styli, probably similar to those in Duchailluia: "...stylis spiniformibus, incurvus" (Krauss 1903, p. 752). The original and subsequent descriptions of D. semoni are too simplified.
In 1988, Roth redescribed Distilopyga semoni, transferred this species to Duchailluia, and synonymized Distylopyga with Duchailluia (Roth 1988). This redescription was based on specimens from Pak Thong Chai (Prov. Nakhon Ratchasima, NE Thailand). The male genitalia were only depicted, not described (Roth 1988, fig. 8B). Unfortunately, the structures of the male genitalia, as shown in Roth (1988), are strongly deformed, so even the main sclerites are not recognizable. The deformation of structures is particularly clearly visible due to the position of apical hook of sclerite L3 of the left phallomere (hook-like left phallomere in term of Roth (1988, fig. 8B, a) directed outwards, whereas this structure is always directed inwards. Thus, the illustration is useless for species identification.
The reason for this deformation is obviously the way male genitalia were mounted on slide. In our opinion, the male and female genitalia of cockroaches should not be mounted on slides, since diagnostically important structures become distorted or squashed, and further manipulation of the genitals (e.g. in order to change their position) become not possible.
Thus, the available descriptions of D. semoni do not provide an opportunity to clarify the relationships with its congeners. In order to solve this problem it is necessary to redescribe the type material and/or additional material from Cibodas (type locality), with special attention to the structure of the male genitalia.
The herewith described Distylopyga beccalonii sp. nov. demonstrates strong differences from Duchailluia ivindo sp. nov. in the male genitalia. These species have a completely different structure of the following sclerites: L4C (compare Figs. 3 A–C and 3E–G), L2 (compare Figs. 3B, D and 3G, H), caudal part of "additional elongated sclerite" (compare Figs. 3C, a.e.s. and 3G, a.e.s.) and R1G (compare Fig. 2 A–C and 5A–C). Subsequently, these two species cannot be considered congeneric. In order to avoid multiplication of entities, we prefer to restore the genus Distylopyga and provisionally ascribe the new species to it.
description: Published as part of Anisyutkin, Leonid N. & Telnov, Dmitry, 2018, New data on the cockroaches previously attributed to the genus Duchailluia Rehn, 1933 (Dictyoptera: Blattidae: Blattinae), pp. 523-538 in Zootaxa 4532 (4) on pages 526-531, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4532.4.4, http://zenodo.org/record/2615629