Taxonomic revision of the genus Monastria Saussure, 1864 (Blattodea: Blaberidae, Blaberinae) from the South American Atlantic forest, with the descriptions of five new species.

 The genus Monastria Saussure, 1864 includes medium to large sized (40-55 mm) dark brown or black cockroaches found in the understory of the Neotropical Atlantic Forest from the Northeast of Brazil to Paraguay and Argentina. The genus shows evident sexual dimorphism: males are elongated with fully developed wings extending beyond the apex of cerci and females are oval and brachypterous. This study is a revision of the genus with redescription of the three already known species, Monastria biguttata (Thunberg, 1826), Monastria similis (Serville, 1838) and Monastria angulata Saussure, 1864, and description of five new ones, Monastria itubera sp. n. and Monastria itabuna sp. n. from state of Bahia, Monastria cabocla sp. n. from state of Sergipe, Monastria kaingangue sp. n. from state of São Paulo and Monastria sagittata sp. n. from state of Minas Gerais. The morphology of the genus and all species is described in details, including male genitalia. Based on this revision, we proposed a new combination for Hiereoblatta papillosa (Thunberg, 1826) comb. n., excluding it from the genus Monastria. For the first time, the juvenile stages of Monastria are characterized and compared to other genera of Blaberinae of the Atlantic forest. Three determination keys are provided. The two first are aimed at identifying the adults and juvenile stages of the five genera of the Blaberinae radiation endemic to the Atlantic forest, respectively. The third concerns the identification of the species of the genus Monastria. A map indicating the localities where species were sampled is also provided.

The informative value of museum collections for ecology and conservation: A comparison with target sampling in the Brazilian Atlantic forest.

Since two decades the richness and potential of natural history collections (NHC) were rediscovered and emphasized, promoting a revolution in the access on data of species occurrence, and fostering the development of several disciplines. Nevertheless, due to their inherent erratic nature, NHC data are plagued by several biases. Understanding these biases is a major issue, particularly because ecological niche models (ENMs) are based on the assumption that data are not biased. Based on it, a recent body of research have focused on searching adequate methods for dealing with biased data and proposed the use of filters in geographical and environmental space. Although the strength of filtering in environmental space has been shown with virtual species, nothing has yet been tested with a real dataset including field validation. In order to contribute to this task, we explore this issue by comparing a dataset from NHC to a recent targeted sampling of the cockroach genus Monastria Saussure, 1864 in the Brazilian Atlantic forest. We showed that, despite strong similarities, the area modeled with NHC data was much smaller. These differences were due to strong climate biases, which increased model's specificity and reduced sensitivity. By applying two forms of rarefaction in the environmental space, we showed that deleting points at random in the most biased climate class is a powerful way for increasing model's sensitivity, so making predictions more suitable to the reality.

Five new species of Ectobiidae (Blattodea) collected in the Reserva Ducke, Amazonas, Brazil / Cinco espécies novas de Ectobiidae (Blattodea) coletados na Reserva Ducke, Amazonas, Brasil

Herein we describe five new species of the Ectobiidae subfamilies Pseudophyllodromiinae (Amazonina spiculata sp. nov., Amazonina spinostylata sp. nov., Cariblatta duckeniana sp. nov., Cariblatta manauensis sp. nov.) and Nyctiborinae (Nyctibora nigra sp. nov.), collected in the Reserva Ducke, Manaus, state of Amazonas. The specimens were collected from litter, fallen logs, branches, and foliage. We illustrate the male genitalia of the new species.

Neste trabalho são descritas cinco novas espécies das subfamílias Pseudophyllodromiinae (Amazonina spiculata sp. nov., Amazonina spinostylata sp. nov., Cariblatta duckeniana sp. nov., Cariblatta manauensis sp. nov.) and Nyctiborinae (Nyctibora nigra sp. nov.) coletadas na Reserva Ducke, Manaus (Estado do Amazonas). Os espécimens foram coletados em folhiço, troncos caídos, ramos e folhagens. Foram ilustradas as genitálias dos machos das novas espécies.

New species of Blaberidae and Ectobiidae (Blattaria) from Brazil

We describe three new species collected from the Reserva Ducke (02°55'-03°01'S, 59°53'-59°59'W), near Manaus, state of Amazonas: one new species was included in Blaberidae (Epilamprinae): Epilampra manauara sp. nov: , which is similar to E. sagitta Rocha e Silva & Aguiar, 1978. It differs from that species in the generally darker coloration and the internal genitalia, which has the right phallomere hooked, developed, wide medially and distended apically, bearing an apical spine-like structure and a median sclerite with a larger prepucium, rounded and with apex more sclerotized and with better-defined apical crests. Two new species were included in Ectobiidae (Blattellinae): Chromatonotus amazoninus sp. nov: , which is similar to Chromatonotus caruaruensis Lopes & Khouri, 2009 in the parallel brown marks on the pronotum, but differs in the shape of the subgenital plate, the median sclerite with a more-sclerotized tip, left phallomere with angulate apex (90 degrees) and apex curved, right phallomere with basal stem more slender and with apical arms dilated; and Dasyblatta spiculata sp. nov: , which has an asymmetrical genital plate and the median sclerite shaped as a spine apically, differing from other species of the genus. The specimens were collected in the evening, in leaf litter, from fallen logs, or on branches and foliage. The male genitalia are illustrated and the material studied is deposited in the collection of the Department of Entomology of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ).

New species of Blaberidae and Ectobiidae (Blattaria) from Brazil

We describe three new species collected from the Reserva Ducke (02°55'-03°01'S, 59°53'-59°59'W), near Manaus, state of Amazonas: one new species was included in Blaberidae (Epilamprinae): Epilampra manauara sp. nov: , which is similar to E. sagitta Rocha e Silva & Aguiar, 1978. It differs from that species in the generally darker coloration and the internal genitalia, which has the right phallomere hooked, developed, wide medially and distended apically, bearing an apical spine-like structure and a median sclerite with a larger prepucium, rounded and with apex more sclerotized and with better-defined apical crests. Two new species were included in Ectobiidae (Blattellinae): Chromatonotus amazoninus sp. nov: , which is similar to Chromatonotus caruaruensis Lopes & Khouri, 2009 in the parallel brown marks on the pronotum, but differs in the shape of the subgenital plate, the median sclerite with a more-sclerotized tip, left phallomere with angulate apex (90 degrees) and apex curved, right phallomere with basal stem more slender and with apical arms dilated; and Dasyblatta spiculata sp. nov: , which has an asymmetrical genital plate and the median sclerite shaped as a spine apically, differing from other species of the genus. The specimens were collected in the evening, in leaf litter, from fallen logs, or on branches and foliage. The male genitalia are illustrated and the material studied is deposited in the collection of the Department of Entomology of the Museu Nacional do Rio de Janeiro (MNRJ).(AU)