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

Fig. 1.14 Female of the wood-boring cockroach Compsagis
lesnei. Left, whole body. Right, head and pronotum: ventral
view (top), lateral view (bottom). From Chopard (1952), with
permission of Société Entomologique de France.
Fig. 1.15 Male of the desert-dwelling Iranian cockroach Leiopteroblatta
monodi, exhibiting the long hairs that create an insulating
boundary layer of air in many desert-dwelling cockroaches.
From Chopard (1969), with permission of the Société
Entomologique de France.
body and the legs. The periphery of the body is fringed by
hairs that directly contact the substrate when the insect is
on the desert surface, creating a boundary layer of air and
trapping respiratory water (Fig. 1.15). A microclimate
that is more favorable than the general desert atmosphere
is thus maintained under the body (Vannier and Ghabbour,
1983). Most of these desert dwellers are in the
Polyphagidae, but some Polyzosteria spp. (Blattidae) that
inhabit dry areas of Australia are apterous, are broadly
Fig. 1.16 Cockroaches that live in nests of social insects. (A)
Male myrmecophile Myrmecoblatta wheeleri; left, ventral view;
right, dorsal view. From Deyrup and Fisk (1984), with permission
of M.A. Deyrup. (B) Female myrmecophile Attaphila
fungicola. From Wheeler (1900). (C) Termitophile Nocticola
termitophila; left, female; right, male. From Silvestri (1946).
Not drawn to scale.
oval, and have a “remarkably hairy covering” (Mackerras,
1965a).
Myrmecophiles/Termitophiles
Myrmecophiles are just a few millimeters long, oval in
shape, strongly convex, and rather uniformly covered
with short, fine setae (Fig. 1.16A,B). They are typically
apterous or brachypterous, the legs and antennae are
short, and in some species the eyes are reduced. Att.
fungicola (Blattellidae) have no more than 70 ommatidia
per eye (Wheeler, 1900; Roth, 1995c). No glands are obvious
that may function in appeasing their hosts. Myrme-
SHAPE, COLOR, AND SIZE 13