Sorineuchora Caudell, 1927

Li, Meng, Che, Yan-Li, Zheng, Yu-Hong & Wang, Zong-Qing, 2017, The cockroach genus Sorineuchora Caudell, 1927 from China (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Pseudophyllodromiinae), ZooKeys 697, pp. 133-156 : 134

Genus Sorineuchora Caudell, 1927

Type species.

Sorineuchora javanica Caudell, 1927.

Diagnosis.

(Partly after Roth (1998)). Fifth segment of maxillary palpus longer than the fourth. Pronotum subelliptical. Front femur with a row of small piliform spinules and two large distal spines (Type C2); proximal four tarsomeres with tarsal pulvilli, tarsal claws simple, asymmetrical, of different size. Tegmina and wings fully developed extending beyond end of abdomen, hind-wing R with oblique branches, M distinct, CuA with one to three branches, apical triangle or appendicular field present, sometimes subobsolete ( S. javanica and S. viridis sp. n.). Abdominal terga of male unspecialized. Supra-anal plate symmetrical, hind margin convexly rounded; paraprocts simple, sheet-like. Subgenital plate with subsymmetrical hind margin. Phallomere L1 consisting of several irregular sclerites. Genital hook on the right side (the diagnosis of subfamily).

According to Roth (1998) there is a close relationship among Chorisoneura Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865, Chorisoneurodes Princis, 1962, Chorisoserrata Roth, 1998 and Sorineuchora Caudell, 1927. Roth (1998) differentiated Sorineuchora from Chorisoneura and Chorisoneurodes by the unspecialized terga in Sorineuchora . Sorineuchora also has the following traits that differentiate it from Chorisoserrata : asymmetrical tarsal claws; interocular vertex not truncate, the fourth maxillary palpomere not longer than the fifth; and antero-ventral margin of forefemur with two apical spines.

Many similar morphological traits exist among Balta Tepper, 1893 and Sorineuchora , such as proximal four tarsomeres with tarsal pulvilli, tarsal claws asymmetrical and unspecialized, and abdominal terga of male unspecialized. According to the maximum likelihood COI tree in Che et al. (2017) and the combined data (12SrRNA, 16SrRNA, COII, 28SrRNA and H3) tree in Wang et al. (2017), there is a close relationship between Sorineuchora and Balta . Sorineuchora can be distinguished from Balta by the following characters: bodies of the former are generally less wide in dorsal view, in the former the fourth maxillary palpomere is not longer than the fifth, and smaller V shaped incision of the hind margin of the subgenital plate. Further study is needed to distinguish the two.

Remarks.

Species of Sorineuchora have strikingly variable morphology. The body coloration ranges from pale green to black (Figs 10, 11, 12); the markings on the pronotal disk vary greatly; the shape of their styli is either cylindrical (Figs 2F, 4E, 6H, 8E) or conical (Figs 3E, 5G, 7H, 9E); the shape of sclerites of L2vm is highly variable, some are filamentary, and some are rod-like. Given this variation, the genus Sorineuchora might be not monophyletic, revision based on characters of the type specimen of the genus or molecular data is needed.

Distribution.

Oriental and Palaearctic regions.

Key to the males of Sorineuchora from China