Taxonomic notes on Japanese Blattaria, III. : On the species of the genus Onychostylus Bolivar

Abstract

A thin-bodied pale brownish cockroach being misidentified as "Phyllodromia vilis auct." (nec Brunner v. W.) has been known to occur in Kyushu and Taiwan. Princis suggested recently the correct name, Onychostylus pallidiolus (Shiraki), of which the specific name was once given by Shiraki but changed by himself misled by Karny (1915). Here is given an illustration of this species based upon a plentyful material taken from many localities on the Pacific coast of south Japan and from the islands of the Ryukyus as well as from Taiwan. This is an arboreal insect dwelling among the leaves of trees. The oothecae are stuck on the leaves and are very flat as compared with that of Blattella germanica. The larvae are extremely flat insects and almost semitransparent, inhabiting always green, or often dead, laeves of shrub trees. Two other species, O. notulatus, and the true O. vilis were also illustrated, the former recently found from some islands of the Ryukyus, and the latter from Iwo-jima (Sulphur Island) in the northwestern Pacific. The biology of these species has not sufficiently be made known although they are supposed to be arboreal as the first species. It may be interesting to note that O. vilis was recorded, in Iwo-jima, as invading human houses. This species is easily bred in a breeding vial under artificial condition similarly to the German cockroach.