Abstract
Morphological characteristics, including male and female genitalia, combined with DNA barcodes were used to identify 470 Anaplecta specimens sampled from China. Ten Anaplecta species are new to science, including three cryptic species: A.paraomei Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.condensa Zhu & Che, sp. nov., and A.longihamata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., which are distinguished mainly by their female genitalia. The other seven new species are as follows: A.bicruris Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.spinosa Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.ungulata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.anomala Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.serrata Zhu & Che, sp. nov., A.bombycina Zhu & Che, sp. nov., and A.truncatula Zhu & Che, sp. nov. This study illustrates that differences in female genitalia can be used to distinguish among species of Anaplecta. The female genitalia of 19 Chinese Anaplecta species are described and illustrated in this paper.
Highlights
The genus Anaplecta, has been attributed to the superfamily Blattoidea (Djernæs 2018) based on molecular studies (Djernaes et al 2015; Wang et al 2017; Bourguignon et al 2018)
This included color, paraprocts, subgenital plates, and phallomeres. These specimens were recovered as four MOTUs in Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), these subtle differences in morphology were insufficient to determine whether they reflect intraspecific variation or interspecific differences
We found the shapes of first valvifer arm, intercalary sclerite, anterior arch, and basivalvula were stable within these four MOTUs and differed between MOTUs
Summary
The genus Anaplecta, has been attributed to the superfamily Blattoidea (Djernæs 2018) based on molecular studies (Djernaes et al 2015; Wang et al 2017; Bourguignon et al 2018). 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, 1996; Lucañas 2016; Deng et al 2020). Males and females were difficult to match if only based on morphological characters, and there was intraspecific variation in male genitalia. Nov.; see below); Deng (2020) had treated the differences in male genitalia as intraspecific variation of Anaplecta omei. Other regions, differences that could either reflect intraspecific variations or interspecific differences
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
