The roach that we thought was new has proved to be a described species of Zuluia, but what is new is the recognition of the males (With wings) as being very different in aspect from the more segmented (Without wings) females.
Sonja managed to get a number of specimens of the males of Zuluia to the British museum of natural history in London so that the specialists become aware that they are significantly different from the females. I learnt from this experience that it is best to wait for a while before assuming that anything is a new species, because even the experts may have missed something.
Odd, I thought most described species of Zuluia actually had males with very long wings, see this unsexed, (but almost certainly male) Z.abscissa specimen:
ReplyDeletehttp://cockroach.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1174098