Species delimitation of Margattea cockroaches from China, with seven new species (Blattodea, Ectobiidae, Pseudophyllodromiinae)

Abstract

Nearly 450 Margattea specimens were collected from 27 locations in China and their morphology was examined. Then 68 Margattea COI sequences were obtained and used to carry out phylogenetic analyses as well as species delimitation analyses using General Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC), Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), and Poisson Tree Processes (bPTP). GMYC analysis resulted in 21 molecular operational taxonomic units (MOTUs) (confidence interval: 20–22), which was completely consistent with the result of the bPTP. There were 15 MOTUs using the ABGD method. The number of MOTUs was slightly different from the assigned morphospecies (16). As to the incongruence between molecular and morphological results, we checked the specimens again and made sure that most morphological differences were determined to be intraspecific differences (except the difference between M. angusta and M. mckittrickae ), although a large genetic distance existed. Finally, 16 Margattea species from China were defined in this study, of which, seven new species are established, i.e. Margattea deltodonta J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., Margattea cuspidata J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., Margattea caudata J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., Margattea paratransversa J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., Margattea disparilis J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., Margattea transversa J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov., and Margattea bicruris J-J He & Z-Q Wang, sp. nov.