Eight new species of the genus Anaplecta Burmeister, 1838 (Blattodea: Blattoidea: Anaplectidae) from China based on molecular and morphological data

Abstract

In this study, we examine 500 specimens of Anaplecta collected from China, of which 26 samples were used for COI sequencing. We confirm eight new species, i.e., Anaplecta corneola Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta staminiformis Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta arcuata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta strigata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta furcata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta cruciata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta nigra Deng & Che sp. nov. and Anaplecta bicolor Deng & Che sp. nov. based on morphological and molecular data using ABGD and GMYC analyses. The results of ABGD and GMYC were basically consistent with the morphospecies of Anaplecta. The intraspecific and interspecific genetic distances of Anaplecta ranged from 0 to 6.6% and 16.8% to 31.8%, respectively. We found the male genitalia of Anaplecta to exhibit intraspecific variation, especially in the phallomeres.

Three cryptic Anaplecta (Blattodea, Blattoidea, Anaplectidae) species revealed by female genitalia, plus seven new species from China

“…The terminology for body, male, and female genitalia mainly follows McKittrick (1964), Roth (1990), Wang et al (2016), and Deng et al (2020). Terminology for veins follows Li et al (2018).…”

“…In male genitalia, the L3 has a long uncinate part (SP4) or not (CQ2, GZ2, GZ4), R1 is bifurcated (CQ2, GZ2) or not (SP4, GZ4), R2 consists of three (CQ2, GZ2, SP4) or four (GZ4) sclerites (Figs 1E-I, 10G-K, 11G-K, 12G-K). Due to the instability in body color (Bruijning, 1948) and the intraspecific variations in male genitalia (Deng et al 2020), it would be premature to use them to distinguish species. Therefore, we have treated them as intraspecific variations of A. omei, as in Deng (2020).…”

“…The characteristics of the external structure and male genitalia are given in Deng et al (2020) and are therefore not repeated here. Female genitalia: paratergites connected to crosspiece by membrane.…”

“…However, intraspecific variations in costal veins and cross veins of the medio-radia as well as in body color were found, which reduces the value of these characteristics for morphology-based identification (Bruijning, 1948). Almost forty years later, and as for other cockroaches, male genitalia were gradually adopted as the main characters to identify species of Anaplecta (Roth 1990(Roth , 1996Lucañas 2016;Deng et al 2020) . Deng et al (2020) established eight Anaplecta species from China with the aid of DNA barcodes, which successfully solved several problems in identification.…”

“…Almost forty years later, and as for other cockroaches, male genitalia were gradually adopted as the main characters to identify species of Anaplecta (Roth 1990(Roth , 1996Lucañas 2016;Deng et al 2020) . Deng et al (2020) established eight Anaplecta species from China with the aid of DNA barcodes, which successfully solved several problems in identification. Males and females were difficult to match if only based on morphological characters, and there was intraspecific variation in male genitalia.…”