An account of the Blattidae (Orthoptera) from Celebes, the Moluccas, and new Guinea

The Blattid fauna of Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea, a region which from a zoogeographical point of view forms an important area of transition, is still insufficiently known. Moreover the literature on the Blattids of this region is scattered in various papers which made it desirable to give a general survey of the hitherto known species of the group from Celebes, the Moluccas, and New Guinea. The present paper deals with the material of Blattidae from the region mentioned above contained in the Leiden and in the Amsterdam museums. I am indebted to Prof. Dr. H. Boschma and Dr. H. C. Blöte of the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden, and to Prof. Dr. L. F. de Beaufort and Mr. J. B. Corporaal of the Zoological Museum at Amsterdam for placing the material at my disposal. Further I should like to express my thanks to the board of Greshoff's Rumphiusfonds for a grant which enabled me to carry out the investigations. As far as concerns our knowledge of the Blattidae in the region dealt with in the present paper, Celebes is the best known although the number of known species probably represents a part only of the existing forms. Hanitsch (1933) already came to this conclusion as he could state that few species only were caught by more than one collector. A survey of the most important collections from the region, with the names of the collectors and the authors who reported upon the material may be given here. Basler Naturhistorisches Museum, collectors P. and F. Sarasin (18931896 and 1902-1903), author R. Hanitsch. University Museum Oxford, collector A. R. Wallace (1856-1859), author F. Walker (1868) ; collector W. Doherty (1896), author R. Shelford