Abstract
New species ?Periplaneta smithiae sp. n. is recorded from the Eocene Green River Formation. The new species possibly widens the Cenozoic range of this genus to the Americas.
In the case this categorization is not precise and the new species represents the closest relative to the genus, it is apparent that the same genus is known from the Eocene Messel Lagerstatte (?P. eocaenica Meunier, 1921 and ?P. relicta Meunier, 1921). Periplaneta Burmeister, 1838 (Blattodea: Blattidae) is one of the most widely distributed living synanthropic cockroach genera.
In any case, autapomorphies of Periplaneta are the characteristic shape of the only partially sclerotized forewing and its venation, the sharp angle of the descending veins and also characteristic leg carination. It fully fits the present taxonomical concept of the genus.
As a relative to its Messel sister-species, it represents further support for cosmopolitan (or at least Eurasian-American) distribution during the Eocene of the American cockroach assemblages.