Diploptera parva Princis, 1953

Li, Xinran & Wang, Zongqing, 2015, A taxonomic study of the beetle cockroaches (Diploptera Saussure) from China, with notes on the genus and species worldwide (Blattodea: Blaberidae: Diplopterinae), Zootaxa 4018 (1), pp. 35-56 : 52-53

Diploptera parva Princis, 1953

( Figs. 7–8 , 63–65 )

Diploptera minor: Bruijning, 1948: 153 , locality Java.

Diploptera parva Princis, 1953: 208 , localities Java (holotype) & Sumatra (paratype).

Taxonomic notes. D. parva is closely similar to D. minor but smaller and a little darker than the latter. The punctations on tegmina are almost invisible but the dense yellow pubescence is more impressive than other species. The cercus of D. parva is bicolor with basal one segment darker than the other two, whilst that of D. minor is almost unicolor. Bruijning’s (1948) D. minor is from Java instead of Philippines and meets the diagnostic characters of D. parva , which has a smaller size (male overall length 8.5mm, cp. D. minor 11mm) and is densely pubescent on tegmina but hardly punctate; this record should be removed from D. minor and put in D. parva . However, giving the assumption that D. parva was not proposed so far, we could speculate that similar specimens might be determined as D. minor and a “ D. parva ” is not easy to come up. Particular attention should be paid when determining specimens with a small body and brownish coloration.

Type materials examined. HOLOTYPE ( NRM), male, “ Java, Buitenz .” (= Buitenzorg), coll. “ Kemner ”; PARATYPE ( NRM), female, “Medan” (= Sumatra, Medan), coll. “ Mjöb. ” (= Mjöberg).

Other material examined. 1 male ( RMNH), “ Batavia ” (= Java, Jakarta), coll. “Dr. Gavere”, “ Diploptera minor Brunner , det. C. Bruijning ’43”.

Figures

FIGURES 2 – 16. Pronota of Diploptera spp. & subspp. presented in monochrome, i. e., white indicates unicolor or lighter coloration, whilst black is for darker portion. 2 – 3 D. punctata; 2 male; 3 female; 4 – 5 D. minor; 4 female; 5 male; 6 D. erythrocephala, male; 7 – 8 D. parva; 7 male; 8 female; 9 D. naevus sp. n., male; 10 D. nigrescens nigrescens, male; 11 – 12 D. nigrescens guani subsp. n.; 11 male; 12 female; 13 D. bicolor, male; 14 D. maculata, female; 15 – 16 D. elliptica sp. n.; 15 male; 16 female. (Dashed lines indicate depression. Scale bar = 2 mm)

FIGURES 57 – 65. Diploptera spp. distributed outside China, types and labels. Part 1 / 2: punctata - species-group except D. punctata. 57 – 59 D. minor (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865), male SYNTYPE (NHMW) from Philippines, photographed by Harald Bruckner, copyright © by Natural History Museum Vienna, NOaS Image Collection, published with permission; 60 – 62 D. erythrocephala Princis, 1950, male HOLOTYPE (MZLU) from Borneo, photographed by Ellen Sandström, photo courtesy of the Biological Museum, Lund University, Sweden; 63 – 65 D. parva Princis, 1953, male HOLOTYPE (NRM) from Java, photographed by Gunvi Lindberg, copyright Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm (NRM). (Scale bars = 5 mm.)