BLATTIDAE Latreille, 1810

Lucañas, Cristian C., 2025, A new micropterous cockroach (Blattodea: Blattidae) from with a rediagnosis of Austrostylopyginae, Journal of Natural History 59 (29 - 32), pp. 2051-2057 : 2052

Family BLATTIDAE Latreille ,

Subfamily AUSTROSTYLOPYGINAE Djernaes and Murienne

Rediagnosis Mackerras (1968) described Austrostylopyga as possessing the following characters: Platyzosteria - with strongly produced seventh tergite which covers eighth and ninth tergites and portion of plate; all metatarsi and second hind tarsomeres with pulvillar and ventral spines, succeeding hind with pulvillar spines; arolium small; tarsal claws simple, symmetrical. With the addition of taxa under Austrostylopyginae (in Malem et al. 2023) the following diagnosis is provided for the subfamily

Small to large-bodied cockroaches (13–37 mm). Sexual dimorphism absent, except for terminalia slightly exposed. Labrum weakly bilobed. Micropterous to macropterous. Forefemur type A (stout spines terminating in apical spines). Mid and hind femur strongly armed. Tibia dorsoventrally flattened metatarsus equal in length than the succeeding tarsomeres combined. First, second and third hind armed with spines on the interior and exterior margin and beside the pulvilli. Pulvilli present on tarsomeres; on third and fourth tarsomere, occupying more than half of the ventral margin. Arolium Tarsal claws simple, symmetrical. In micropterous members, seventh tergite strongly produced eighth and ninth tergites and base of supra-anal plate. Fifth, sixth and seventh tergites with corners apically acute (can sometimes be chipped off in specimens); Supra-anal plate symmetrical.Cerci pointed. Subgenital plate symmetrical. Style similarly sized, pointed apically.

Austrostylopyginae differ from micropterous Duchailluiinae in terms of the strongly produced tergite (seventh tergite medially produced in Duchailluia but not covering most of supra-anal plate Shelford 1911; Rehn 1933) and the simple style (bifurcate in Duchailluiinae).

Austrostylopyginae is similar to Polyzosteriinae in terms of the mostly micropterous members [ Methanini ( Polyzosteriinae ) and Dorylaea (Austrostylopyginae) ], apically acute posterolateral corners abdominal tergite, style and cerci, but differs in terms of the symmetrical tarsal claws (asymmetrical Polyzosteriinae ), hind tarsomere with ventral and pulvillar spines, as long as succeeding tarsomeres bined (hind tarsomere without ventral spines, shorter than succeeding tarsomeres combined Polyzosteriinae ), pulvilli and arolia small (pulvilli and arolia large in Polyzosteriinae ). Meanwhile it is to Blattinae in terms of symmetrical tarsal claws, small pulvilli and arolia, hind tarsomere with ventral pulvillar spines, as long as or slightly longer than succeeding tarsomeres combined, but differs in apically acute posterolateral corners of the abdominal tergite, style and cerci.