The Biotic Associations of CockroachesRoth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Science
The Biotic Associations of Cockroaches
Roth, Louis M. (Louis Marcus)
Cockroaches; Insects -- Ecology
_Common name._--Porto Rican tody.
_Natural prey._--_Plectoptera poeyi?_, Puerto Rico (Wetmore, 1916): The
stomachs of 89 birds were examined; a single bird had eaten the above
cockroach. According to Wolcott (1950) _P. poeyi_ could be _Plectoptera
dorsalis_, _P. rhabdota_, or _P. infulata_.
Family BUCEROTIDAE
=Tockus birostris= (Scopoli)
_Synonymy._--_Lophocerus birostris_ [Dr. H. Friedmann, personal
communication, 1957].
_Common name._--Common gray hornbill.
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, India, Central Provinces (D'Abreu, 1920).
Order PICIFORMES
Family PICIDAE
=Dendrocopus mahrattensis= (Latham)
_Synonymy._--_Liopicus mahrattensis_ [Friedmann, p. c. 1957].
_Common name._--Yellow-fronted pied woodpecker.
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, India, Central Provinces (D'Abreu, 1920).
=Melanerpes portoricensis= (Daudin)
_Common name._--Puerto Rican woodpecker.
_Natural prey._--_Pycnoscelus surinamensis_, Puerto Rico (Wetmore,
1916): One specimen found in 59 bird stomachs examined.
Order PASSERIFORMES
Family FORMICARIIDAE
=Gymnopithys leucaspis= (Sclater)
_Common name._--Bicolored antbird.
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, Panama Canal Zone (Johnson, 1954): This
bird feeds on small cockroaches, and other arthropods, which are flushed
from their hiding places by swarms of the army ant, _Eciton burchelli_.
Family ORIOLIDAE
=Icterus portoricensis= (Bryant)
_Common name._--Puerto Rican oriole.
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, Puerto Rico (Wetmore, 1916): Cockroaches
and oöthecae found in the birds' stomachs.
Family CORVIDAE
=Aphelocoma coerulesens= (Bosc)
_Common name._--Florida jay.
_Experimental prey._--_Pycnoscelus surinamensis_, U.S.A., Florida
(Sanders, 1928).
=Cyanocitta cristata= (Linnaeus)
_Common name._--Blue jay.
_Experimental prey._--_Diploptera punctata_, U.S.A. (Eisner, 1958).
_Eurycotis floridana_, _Neostylopyga rhombifolia_, and _Periplaneta
americana_, U.S.A. (Eisner, personal communication, 1958): _E.
floridana_ was only eaten after the odor of 2-hexenal, which was
released by the insect on being attacked by the bird, had dissipated.
Family PARADISEIDAE
=Paradisea papuana= Bechstein
_Experimental prey._--Cockroaches, Malaya and on shipboard (Wallace,
1869): Two adult males fed voraciously on rice, bananas, and
cockroaches. Wallace collected cockroaches every night on board ship to
feed the birds. "At Malta ... I got plenty of cockroaches from a
bakehouse, and when I left, took with me several biscuit-tins full, as
provision for the voyage home."
Family TROGLODYTIDAE
=Troglodytes aedon= Vieillot
_Common name._--House wren.
_Natural prey._--Cockroaches, U.S.A. (Greenewalt and Jones, 1955): The
wren carried three small cockroaches to nestlings; the records probably
represent incidental captures.
=Troglodytes audax= Tschudi
_Common name._--Cucarachero.
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