Two new species of Panesthia (Blattodea: Blaberidae, Panesthiinae) from Queensland

In Australia, the genus is represented by 11 species and two subspecies, with their diversity concentrated in the forests of the eastern seaboard. Most of the Australian species were described in a period of concerted discovery during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, associated with the rapid expansion of European settlement (Brunner de Wattenwyl, 1865; Kirby, 1903; Shaw, 1918; Tepper, 1893; Walker, 1868). Cumulatively, these authors reported 13 species, which were revised to the 11 recognised today by Princis (1965) and Roth (1977).

While little progress was made in the years immediately following these reviews, the last two decades have seen a renewal of targeted Panesthia collections, with excursions to numerous forest fragments across Queensland (J.A. Walker, H.A. Rose, pers. obs.). The authors recently undertook a taxon-rich phylogenetic study including samples from across the eastern seaboard (Adams et al. 2024), which suggested the presence of up to six additional unrecognised species.

Here we describe two new Panesthia species from Queensland, corresponding to Panesthia sp. Airlie Beach and Panesthia sp. Koombooloomba in the phylogeny of Adams et al. (2024).

We also update Roth’s (1977) key to Australian Panesthia species based on resultant morphological observations.