The Biotic Associations of CockroachesRoth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Science
The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches
Roth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Cockroaches; Insects -- Ecology
In British Guiana, Beebe (1925a) found undetermined cockroach remains in
the stomachs of four species of fish belonging to three families, as
follows:
Family POTAMOTRYGONTIDAE
=Potamotrygon humboldti= (Duméril)
(= _Potamotrygon hystrix_)
Family PIMELODIDAE
=Rhamdia sebae= Cuvier and Valenciennes
Family CHARACIDAE
=Cyrtocharax magdalenae essequibensis= (Eigenmann)
(= _Cynopotamus essequibensis_)
=Chalceus macrolepidotus= Cuvier and Valenciennes
The only other records of cockroaches being eaten by fish pertain to the
use of cockroaches as bait.[8] Captain William Owen (_in_ Webster, 1834)
stated that the Chinese used cockroaches as bait in their fishing
excursions. At Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, _Blatta orientalis_ were kept
in large numbers by bait dealers and were sold to fishermen who used
them for catching _Lepomis pallidus_, a sunfish locally known as bream,
blue bream, or bluegill (Rau, 1944). In Indiana, oriental cockroaches
were collected at a city dump by fishermen (Gould, 1941). Peterson
(1956) states that cockroaches are satisfactory bait for bluegills,
crappies, channel cat, blue heads, and large mouth black bass.
Class AMPHIBIA[9]
Order CAUDATA
Family PLETHODONTIDAE
=Plethodon glutinosus= (Green)
_Natural prey._--_Cryptocercus punctulatus_, U.S.A. (Honigberg, 1953):
Protozoa which are normally only found in _C. punctulatus_ were present
in the intestine of the salamander indicating that this cockroach had
been eaten by the amphibian.
Order SALIENTIA
Family BUFONIDAE
=Bufo funereus= Bocage
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, Belgian Congo (Noble, 1924): The stomachs
of 62 out of 72 specimens contained food; this included 3 cockroaches.
=Bufo ictericus= Spix
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, Brazil (Valente, 1949): Stomach contents
revealed the prothorax, legs, and wings of cockroaches, and fragments of
wood-cockroaches. This toad frequently feeds at night.
=Bufo marinus= (Linnaeus)
_Common name._--Giant toad, marine toad, Surinam toad.
_Natural prey._--_Epilampra abdomen-nigrum_, Trinidad (Weber, 1938):
Found in the stomachs of two toads.
_Diploptera punctata_, Hawaii (Pemberton and Williams, 1938).
_Periplaneta_ sp., Fiji (Lever, 1939): Many householders in Suva have
seen the toad eat considerable numbers of these cockroaches.
_Pycnoscelus surinamensis_, Hawaii (Alicata, 1938; Illingworth, 1941).
Cockroaches, Nicaragua (Noble, 1918): Stomach contents of toads captured
at street lamps in Rio Grande consisted chiefly of large cockroaches.
Puerto Rico (Wolcott, 1937).
=Bufo valliceps= Wiegmann
_Experimental prey._--_Periplaneta americana_, U.S.A. (Moore, 1946):
Cockroaches containing infective acanthellas of _Moniliformis dubius_
were fed to three toads.
Family HYLIDAE
=Hyla cinerea= (Schneider)
_Common name._--Green tree frog.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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