Dziriblatta (Dziriblatta) algerica
Creators: name: Bohn, Horst
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2021
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Arthropoda
Insecta
Blattodea
Ectobiidae
Dziriblatta
Dziriblatta algerica

description: 5. Dziriblatta (Dziriblatta) algerica (Bolívar, 1881)
Figs. 1B–E, 8, 9A–F, 27, 28, 29
For distribution references and characters not treated here see the description of the species in Bohn 2019, p. 25, figs. 15A‒I, 16J, 29, 32.
Male structures. (Figs. 8, 9). The glandular pit of Dz. (Dz.) algerica is, similarly as in the preceding four species, partly bipartite by a sagittal ridge; but the central pit and its trails are considerably broader, and the lateral gutters ascending from the trails to the surface taper off without forming a hole at the end. The pouch lobes also show some similarities with the preceding species: they have a short common end piece, and the ventral wall of the lobes is densely covered with long bristles; but in most other structures there are great differences: the lobes are considerably longer than the respective tergite, they are narrowly lappet-shaped, only weakly sclerotized and throughout dorso-ventrally flattened, leaving only little space between the two layers consisting of the dorsal and ventral wall of the pouch. Accordingly the opening of the pouch is also narrow, slit-like—between the edge of the opening (po) indicated by the arrows 1 to 3 in Fig. 9A, and the ventral wall of the pouch lying immediately below: the white area partly covered with bristles—but wide enough to allow the passage of longer bristles reaching from the interior of the pouch into the pit. The lobes are transversely oriented only in the apical two-thirds. In the basal third they form, always as closely approached double-layer, an arc of nearly 180° fairly around the longitudinal axis towards the ventro-posterior. This curve, not visible in Figs. 8 and 9A due to focus stacking throughout the whole object, is at least imaginable in Figs. 9B and C with focus only on the dorsal or ventral half, respectively. The pouch opening follows the curve of the lobes at their base (Fig. 9A–C, points 1‒3) and ends at the inner surface of anterior wall of the trail (more or less back side of the figure) in a gutterlike structure representing, in this image, the right corner of the opening (Figs. 9A, C, D, point 3). The corner of the opening represents the basal end of the lateral edge of the pouch lobe; thus, the gutterlike structure continues up to the tip of the lobe, though much less or not sclerotized (Fig. 9A, from point 3 to 4). At point 2 the pre-glandular margin of the tergite, till there together with the pouch forming the edge of the pouch opening, separates from the pouch (Fig. 9B) and, continuing the course in a lateral direction, tapers off in the anterior wall of the lateral gutter (for a more detailed explanation see heading of Fig. 9). Glandular pores laterally on T2 numerous, covering an area of about half of the length of the pre-ridge area (fig. 15E in Bohn 2019).
Remarks. The structure of the pouch and its lobes in this species is—as compared to the other species of this subgenus—unexpectedly complex. It is not completely clear how the very narrow cavities of the pouch are connected and on which ways the secretions produced in the lobes can pass into the pit. Histological sectioning or microtomography studies will be necessary to clarify these questions. The system can be seen as a preadaptation for the development of the pouch structure present in the lobososacculata -species group, but its function in the organism and the importance of the differences to the more primitive system for its function are not known and only approachable when the construction is fully known.
description: Published as part of Bohn, Horst, 2021, Revision of the genus Dziriblatta Chopard, 1936 (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Ectobiinae) III. The species of the subgenus Dziriblatta, pp. 201-250 in Zootaxa 4964 (2) on pages 207-208, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4964.2.1, http://zenodo.org/record/4709177