Cockroache; Ecology, behavior & history - W.J. Bell

Table 3.1. New World distribution and microhabitats of
Latiblattella (Blattellidae). From Willis (1969).
Species Habitat Country
Latiblattella inornata Decaying leaf mold Canal Zone
and litter under
palms
Lat. chichimeca In bromeliads Mexico
Lat. zapoteca Under stones at the Costa Rica
edge of rivers
Lat. rehni In Spanish moss Florida
(Tillandsia usueoides),
under bark of dead pines
Lat. lucifrons On Yucca elata Arizona
Lat. angustifrons On Inga spp. trees Costa Rica
Lat. azteca On grapefruit trees Mexico
Lat. vitrea In dry, curled leaves Mexico,
of corn plants (Zea zea) Costa Rica,
Honduras
1996a). In wood-feeding cockroaches, juvenile food and
habitat is set when the parent chooses a log to colonize.
The horizontal distribution of cockroaches in caves is often
related to the resting positions of bats, which determine
the placement of guano and other organic matter.
Gautier (1974a, 1974b) calculated the spatial distribution
of burrowing Blaberus nymphs in caves by counting the
number of individuals in 50 cm 2 samples to a depth of 15
cm. He found that nymphs were concentrated in zones
where bat guano, fruit, and twigs dropped by the bats
accumulated, and were absent from zones of dry soil,
stones, or pebbles. In many cave cockroaches, females descend
from their normal perches on the cave walls to
oviposit or give birth on the cave floor in or near guano
(e.g., Blaberus, Eublaberus, Periplaneta—Crawford and
Cloudsley-Thompson, 1971; Gautier, 1974b; Deleporte,
1976), where the nymphs remain until they are at least
half grown. They then climb onto the cave walls, where
they complete their development.
CIRCADIAN ACTIVITY
lands, shrub communities, and woods, where they are
associated with leaf litter and loose bark. Early instars,
however, are consistently found living in nests of Crematogaster
lineolata, an ant that inhabits the soil beneath
large rocks (Lawson, 1967). Females, nymphs, and oothecae
of Escala insignis have been collected from ant
colonies in Australia, but males live in leaf litter (Roth,
1991b; Roach and Rentz, 1998). In Florida, densities of
Blattella asahinai nymphs and females bearing oothecae
are highest in leaf litter of wooded areas; all other adults
are more diffusely distributed (Brenner et al., 1988).
SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION
Many factors influence the spatial distribution of a
species, and it is difficult to determine whether the
arrangement of individuals in a habitat is determined by
one, a few, or the combined action of all of them. Individuals
may move in response to temporal changes (daily
rhythms, weather, season), or to fulfill varying needs (dispersal,
mate finding, etc.) (Basset et al., 2003b). The distribution
of cockroach individuals is often correlated
with the proximity of appropriate food sources. In
sparsely vegetated sites, for example, cockroaches are frequently
associated with whatever plants (and therefore
their litter) are present. This includes deserts (Edney et
al., 1978), alpine zones (Sinclair et al., 2001), and other
arid or Mediterranean-type habitats such as southwestern
Australia, where the number and diversity of grounddwelling
cockroaches depends on the type, percent cover,
and depth of the litter present (Abenserg-Traun et al.,
Many species exhibit daily and seasonal movements in response
to their dietary, reproductive, and microenvironmental
needs; these vary with the individual, sex, developmental
stage, species, day, season, and habitat. Activity
patterns are expected to differ, for instance, between those
cockroaches that forage, find mates, reproduce, and take
refuge all in the same habitat (in logs, under bark, in leaf
litter) and those that move daily between their harborage
and the habitats in which they conduct most other life activities.
The most common circadian activity pattern
among the latter is for nymphs and adults to rest in
harborages during the day, then become active as the sun
sets. At dusk, adults climb or fly to above-ground perching
sites (Schal and Bell, 1986), while nymphs confine
their activities to the leaf litter. Some species are evidently
active for short periods just after sunset, whereas others
may be observed throughout the night. Within 60 min after
sunset, adult males and small nymphs of Periplaneta
fuliginosa emerge from their harborage, followed by
medium and large nymphs and adult females. After feeding,
males climb vertical surfaces, while nymphs and most
females return to shelter (Appel and Rust, 1986). Males
also become active earlier than females in Ectobius lapponicus.
They begin moving in the late afternoon, while
females and nymphs wait until after sunset (Dreisig,
1971). In Nesomylacris sp., most females do not become
active until just before dawn, while males are active
throughout the night. Females of Epilampra involucris are
active at both dusk and dawn (Fig. 3.2). With few exceptions,
temporal overlap among nocturnally active species
is large.
HABITATS 39