Nocticola baumi, Lucañas & Bláha & Rahmadi & Patoka, 2021

Lucañas, Cristian C., Bláha, Martin, Rahmadi, Cahyo & Patoka, Jiří, 2021, The first Nocticola Bolivar 1892 (Blattodea: Nocticolidae) from New Guinea, Zootaxa 5082 (3), pp. 294-300 : 295-296

Nocticola baumi n. sp.

Material examined: Holotype: INDONESIA • ♂; Hagepma cave, New Guinea Highlands, Jayawijaya Regency , Papua Province; 04°01.933’ S, 139°00.221’ E; 11-12 July 2017; Jiří Patoka & Martin Bláha leg., slide mounted ( MZB.Orth.21847).

Paratypes: INDONESIA • 7 adults ♀, 5 nymphs ♀, 2 nymphs ♂; same data as holotype ( MZB) .

Diagnosis: Vertex weakly exposed. Eyes and ocelli absent. First antennal flagellomere distinctly longer than succeeding individual flagellomeres. Pronotum ovoid, longer than wide. Profemur Type C. Legs extremely elongate; meso- and metafemora nearly as long as the body. Genal spines minute. Tarsal claws simple, symmetrical. Pulvilli and arolium absent. Tegmina well-developed extending beyond the supra-anal plate, venations dissimilar, weak and indistinct. Hind wings absent. Abdominal tergites unspecialized. Supra-anal plate subtruncate with weak mesal indentation; cerci nearly as long as the abdomen. Subgenital plate weakly asymmetrical. The absence of specialized tergal gland places the new species to simoni -species group.

Nocticola baumi n. sp. resembles the macropterous form of Nocticola currani Trotter et al., 2017 . Specific similarities are in the fully-developed tegmina, absence of sub-apical lobe in L3 (L2d in Trotter et al. 2017), and recurved, sickle-like L2d (L3d in Trotter et al. 2017). It differs from N. currani in the absence of hind wings and eyes (present on N. currani ), shape of the pronotum (longer than wide in N. baumi while wider than long in N. currani ), extremely elongate legs (almost three times than that of N. currani ), and the shape of R1 (long, paddle-shaped, and weakly sclerotized in N. baumi while short, large with heavily sclerotized caudal edge on N. currani ).

Among other members of cavernicolous simoni -species group, it is similar to N. flabella Roth, 1991 in the complete absence of ommatidia, asymmetrical subgenital plate, the sickle-shaped L2d, but differs in terms of tegminal development (extending beyond the abdomen in N. baumi , while reduced and fan-shaped in N. flabella ), shape of L3 (angulate in N. baumi , while strongly recurved in N. flabella ), shape of R3 (anterolateral margin rounded in N. baumi , while acute in N. flabella ).

Description:

Male ( Fig. 2A ): Size (mm): Total length (length from the tip of vertex up to the tip of tegmina): 5.17; Body length (the length from the tip of vertex up to the tip of abdomen): 3.99; Pronotum length x width (at widest axis): 1.12 x 0.84; Head length: 1.31; Tegmina: 3.49; Profemur length: 2.9; Mesofemur length: 3.14; Metafemur length: 3.94.

Vertex weakly exposed. Compound eyes and ocelli absent ( Fig 2 C-D). Pronotum ovoid, longer than wide. Tegmina well-developed; hind wings absent. Legs very long, profemur Type C1 ( Fig 2E ); meso- and metafemur with apical spines; meso- and metatibia with several minute spines on outer aspect; hind metatarsi longer than the rest; pulvilli and arolia absent, tarsal claws simple, symmetrical. Abdominal tergal gland absent (simoni species-group ( Roth 1988)). Supra-anal plate with mesal invagination, apices round. Subgenital plate weakly asymmetric. Cerci very long, apical segment strongly pointed. Style absent. Genitalia as illustrated ( Fig 2F ): genital hook (L3) elongate, without sub-apical lobe. Accessory hook-like phallomere (L4C) sickle-shaped, heavily sclerotized; R1 weakly sclerotized, elongate, paddle-like, with several setae; R2 short and broad, weakly curved with distal half covered with scale-like tubercles; R3 membranous, with few long setae.

Female ( Fig 2B ): Body length: 4.2; Head length x width: 1.59 x 0.9; Pronotum length x width: 0.71 x 0.54; Profemur length: 2.83; Mesofemur length: 3.05; Metafemur: 3.44; Metatibia: 4.48; Metatarsomeres: I: 2.4; II: 0.6; III: 0.29; IV: 0.26; V: 0.42; Cerci 3.8.

Similar to male except: apterous; supra-anal plate ( Fig 2G ) with weak medial invagination, apex rounded; subgenital plate valvular.

Known distribution: A single limestone Hagepma cave in New Guinea Highlands (Central Range), Jayawijaya Regency, Papua Province, Indonesia. Close to the entrance into the cave is situated Palimoro village inhabited by one family of local Dani people. The cave was formed by the subterranean Yumugima river. The river flows out from the mountains in Baliem Valley as a tributary of Baliem river. There are both fast flowing shallow riffles of depth about 0.5 m and pools deeper than 1 m, and water and air temperatures were circa 15.0 °C. Based on information from local people, the water level increases up to two meters during the rainy season.

Etymology: Named in honour of Dr. Jiří Baum (1900-1944), a Czech zoologist, museum curator, explorer and writer. The specific epithet corresponds to the Latin form, singular genitive of his family name. Dr. Baum served as the director of the zoological department of the National Museum in Prague and repeatedly visited Africa, Australia, South America, Southeast Asia, and Japan within collecting trips. He wrote a book titled “Zlato na Nové Guineji” (Gold in New Guinea) and had planned an exploration trip to New Guinea. When the WWII began, he joined the domestic resistance in Czechoslovakia but was arrested and executed by Nazis.

Ecology: The species is known from a single cave with a river flowing where Cherax acherontis Patoka et al., 2017 was described from. Interestingly, no bats were observed in the cave and the system relies mainly on allochthonous sources of energy brought into the cave by the river. The individuals of N. baumi n. sp. were observed in low densities and quickly running on banks and walls in the cave.

The cockroaches were found running on the silt-clay river banks of the cave and some on the walls. Due to the absence of bat guano, it is possible that the cockroach feeds on the microbial biofilms on the silt. Microbivory of cave cockroaches have been suggested by Bell et al. (2007), citing that even oligotrophic caves support a rich microbial community ( Barton et al. 2004). On the other hand, Bell et al (2007) also suggested the possibility of geophagy by troglobitic cockroaches, citing that Roth (1980) found clay on guts of Nocticola australiensis nymph. Additional behavioral observations of the cockroach, data on microbial community of the cave floor and perhaps cockroach gut content are needed to test this hypothesis.

Figures

FIGURE 2. Nocticola baumi n. sp.: (A) adult male; (B) adult female: head and thorax; (C) lateral view and (D) frontal view of male head and prothorax; (E) male proleg; (F) male genitalia; (G) female supra-anal plate.