The Biotic Associations of CockroachesRoth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Science
The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches
Roth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Cockroaches; Insects -- Ecology
_Nesomylacris relica_, Jamaica (Rehn and Hebard, 1927).
_Nyctibora brunnea_(?), Panama (Caudell, 1914): According to Hebard
(1920) Caudell's specimen was almost certainly incorrectly identified.
It may have been _Nyctibora noctivaga_ or a smaller species of the
genus. Brazil (Hancock, 1926).
_Nyctibora laevigata_, Jamaica (Hebard, 1917; Rehn and Hebard, 1927).
_Nyctibora lutzi_, Puerto Rico (Rehn and Hebard, 1927): "in epiphytes
with pencil-like leaves."
_Pelmatosilpha rotundata_, Panama (Caudell, 1914).
_Pseudomops laticornis_, Costa Rica (Picado, 1913).
_Pycnoscelus surinamensis_, Costa Rica (Picado, 1913). Mexico (Caudell,
1914). Jamaica (Rehn and Hebard, 1927).
"_Rhicnoda_" sp., Costa Rica (Picado, 1913). This genus is now
recognized as not being in the New World fauna. Probably the specimen
was a species of _Epilampra_ or _Hyporhicnoda_ as suggested by Gurney
(personal communication, 1959) and confirmed by Rehn (p.c., 1959).
Cockroaches, Costa Rica (Calvert, 1910): Cockroaches were said to be
common in bromeliads on the moist Atlantic slope.
Family LILIACEAE
=Yucca elata= Engelman
_Associate._--_Latiblattella lucifrons_, Arizona (Ball et al., 1942).
=Easter lilies=
_Associate._--_Pycnoscelus surinamensis_, Connecticut (Zappe, 1918).
Family MUSACEAE
=Bananas=
Cockroaches have been captured in bunches of bananas, in bracts of
banana flowers, under banana leaves, and burrowing in rotten banana
stalks. Although many of the species associated with bananas are
indigenous to the banana-growing areas of the American Tropics, most of
the specimens cited below were captured elsewhere as adventitious
insects that had been imported with the fruit. It is obvious that many
of these insects must have been closely associated with bananas on the
plantations, where, undoubtedly, the growing plants provided attractive
ecological niches. Bunting (1956) deduced, from the presence of healthy
cockroaches on bananas allegedly sprayed with copper arsenate, that the
insects did not feed on stems or fruit but hid among the bananas and
foraged elsewhere; however, certain reports are of cockroaches actually
feeding on bananas. Some of the records cited by Hebard (1917) were
compiled from earlier reports not all of which we have seen. Numbers in
parentheses following certain citations indicate the number of times the
association had been observed. Known or suspected adventive material is
so indicated.
_Aglaopteryx diaphana_, Jamaica (Rehn and Hebard, 1927): Found in bracts
of banana blossoms. England (Bunting, 1955): Adventive, on bananas from
Dominica.
_Aglaopteryx vegeta_, Finland (Princis, 1947): Adventive, in banana box.
_Amazonina emarginata_, Trinidad (Princis and Kevan, 1955): In banana
bunch.
_Archimandrita marmorata_, Denmark (Henriksen, 1939): Adventive (2), in
bananas from Jamaica(?). As Princis (1947) and Gurney (personal
communication, 1959) point out, this is a Central American species, so
Jamaica may be an error.
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