Brephallus, Wang, Zhenzhen, Zhao, Qiongyao, Li, Weijun, Che, Yanli & Wang, Zongqing, 2018

Wang, Zhenzhen, Zhao, Qiongyao, Li, Weijun, Che, Yanli & Wang, Zongqing, 2018, Establishment of a new genus, Brephallus Wang et al., gen. nov. (Blattodea, Blaberidae, Epilamprinae) based on two species from Pseudophoraspis, with details of polymorphism in species of Pseudophoraspis, ZooKeys 785, pp. 117-131 : 117

Genus Brephallus gen. n. Figures 2 A–F, 3 F–G, 4 D–E, 4G, 5 G–H

Species included.

Brephallus fruhstorferi (Shelford, 1910), comb. n., Brephallus tramlapensis (Anisyutkin, 1999), comb. n.

Type species.

Pseudophoraspis fruhstorferi Shelford, 1910, by present designation.

Generic diagnosis.

Coloration brownish yellow. Pronotum smooth, completely covering vertex, anterior margin curved and posterior margin obtusely produced. Tegmina and wings fully developed in both sexes, entirely covering abdomen, tegmina about twice as long as broad, apices rounded (Figure 2 A–F). Hind metatarsus shorter than succeeding tarsal segments combined, with two equal rows of spines along most of its length, 2 nd– 4th segments with large euplantulae. Supra-anal plate and hypandrium nearly symmetrical, posterior margin emarginate near mid-line (Figure 4G).

Male genitalia (Figure 4 D–E). Right phallomere similar to that in Morphna , Opisthoplatia , and Rhabdoblatta with well-developed caudal part of sclerite R1T subrectangular in shape, R2 rounded, R3 well developed, widened caudally and fused with R5. Sclerite L2D similar to Rhabdoblatta , divided into basal and apical parts, basal part rod-like, apical part more or less rounded, cap-shaped, but with more bristles. Sclerite L3 with terminal rectangular apex pointed and folded, scattered with bristles.

The new genus differs from other genera of Epilamprinae as follows: 1) male tegmina about twice as long as broad (Figure 2A, E); 2) facial part of head with large brown spot from ocellus to clypeus, basal margin of ocellus with brown spot (Figure 2B, D, F); 3) one third of radius vein of tegmen from base yellowish white (Figure 2A, C, E); 4) sclerite L3 with terminal rectangular, apex pointed (Figure 4 D–E).

Etymology:

We propose the name Brephallus , based on the composition of two Latin words ( “brevis” and “phallus”) meaning "short phallomere", in reference to the short L2D sclerite of the male genitalia.

Remarks.

This genus differs from Pseudophoraspis in the apical part of sclerite L2D without a well-developed apical outgrowth. Meanwhile, the mean sequence divergence among species of Brephallus and Pseudophoraspis ranged from 15.2% to 18.8%, larger than that of congeners (Table 4). Although Brephallus fruhstorferi and B. tramlapensis only have the mean interspecific genetic distance of 4.1% (Table 4) between them, they show distinct morphological differences as follows: 1) mid-abdomen of B. tramlapensis (Anisyutkin, 1999) has two brown stripes while B. fruhstorferi (Shelford, 1910) lacks stripes (Figure 2 A–F); and 2) the apical part of sclerite L2D of B. tramlapensis (Anisyutkin, 1999) is large and long, with a protrusion in the middle (Figure 4E) while in B. fruhstorferi (Shelford, 1910) it is short, without a protrusion in the middle (Figure 4D).