Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure, 1862
Thorax porcellana Saussure is a species of epilamprid cockroach occurring in Sri Lanka and India. Both sexes are fully winged, but only the male takes flight, and then rarely and on short flights.
Henri Louis Frédéric de Saussure was a Swiss mineralogist and entomologist specialising in studies of Hymenoptera and Orthoptera. He also was a prolific taxonomist.
Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an island country in South Asia, located in the Indian Ocean to the southwest of the Bay of Bengal and to the southeast of the Arabian Sea. The island is historically and culturally intertwined with the Indian subcontinent, but is geographically separated from the Indian subcontinent by the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Strait. The legislative capital, Sri Jayawardenepura Kotte, is a suburb of the commercial capital and largest city, Colombo.
India, also known as the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh largest country by area and with more than 1.3 billion people, it is the second most populous country and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the southwest, and the Bay of Bengal on the southeast, it shares land borders with Pakistan to the west; China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the northeast; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. In the Indian Ocean, India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka and the Maldives, while its Andaman and Nicobar Islands share a maritime border with Thailand and Indonesia.
Louis M. Roth speculated in 1981 that the arched tegmina found in Phoraspis and Thorax were similar to that of Phlebonotus pallens and would suggest similar maternal care. The Indian entomologist S. Bhoopathy confirmed in 1998 that this ovoviviparous species carries some 30-40 hatchling nymphs for their first two instars in a special recess under the domed forewings on the dorsum of the mother. During their stay of about 7 weeks they drink a pinkish liquid secreted from between the tergites of their mother’s abdomen. They also use their relatively long, sharp, mandibular tooth-like processes to pierce the mother’s cuticle and feed directly on her haemolymph. These 'teeth' are lost after two instars when there is no longer a close association with the mother.
"Immediately after hatching, the first instar nymphs crawled over the abdomen of the mother. The upper surface of her abdomen became markedly depressed into a fairly tight spacious trough or chamber with its sides raised. As the nymphs crawled over her body, she raised up her tegmina, which were large, tough, and dome-shaped, and all the nymphs were accommodated compactly; the tegmina were placed in position so as to conceal all the nymphs and to afford perfect protection."— Bhoopathy 1998
Parental care among cockroaches, where offspring are fed on bodily secretions, is not rare, and has been recorded in Perisphaerus , Trichoblatta , Pseudophoraspis , Phlebonotus , Gromphadorhina , Solganea , Cryptocercus and Blattella , whereas biparental care is found only in wood-eating cockroaches - wood is low in nutrients and is made assimilable by micro-organisms in the adult gut.
Pseudophoraspis is a genus of cockroaches.
Gromphadorhina is one of several roach genera in the tribe Gromphadorhinini, all from the island of Madagascar. It is one of several genera known collectively known as hissing cockroaches, and common in the pet trade. In the older literature, the name is sometimes misspelled as Gromphadorrhina.
Cryptocercus is a genus of Dictyoptera and the sole member of its own family Cryptocercidae. Species are known as wood roaches or brown-hooded cockroaches. These roaches are subsocial, their young requiring considerable parental interaction. They also share wood-digesting gut bacteria types with wood-eating termites, and are therefore seen as evidence of a close genetic relationship, that termites are essentially evolved from social cockroaches.
The Carolina mantis is a species of praying mantis of the subfamily Stagmomantinae.
The American cockroach is the largest species of common cockroach, and often considered a pest. It is colloquially known as the waterbug, though is not a true waterbug since it is not aquatic. It is also known as the ship cockroach, kakerlac, and Bombay canary. It is often misidentified as a palmetto bug.
The German cockroach is a small species of cockroach, typically about 1.1 to 1.6 cm long. In colour it varies from tan to almost black, and it has two dark, roughly parallel, streaks on the pronotum running anteroposteriorly from behind the head to the base of the wings. Although B. germanica has wings, it can barely fly, although it may glide when disturbed. Of the few species of cockroach that are domestic pests, it probably is the most widely troublesome example. It is very closely related to the Asian cockroach, and to the casual observer, the two appear nearly identical and may be mistaken for each other. However, the Asian cockroach is attracted to light and can fly like a moth, while the German cockroach cannot.
Ectobiidae is a family of the order Blattodea (cockroaches). This family contains many of the smaller common household pest cockroaches, among others. They are sometimes called wood cockroaches. A few notable species include:
Parcoblatta fulvescens, the fulvous wood cockroach, is a species of cockroach endemic to the United States and possibly Canada that measures around 13 mm (0.5 in) long.
Blattodea is an order of insects that contains cockroaches and termites. Formerly, the termites were considered a separate order, Isoptera, but genetic and molecular evidence suggests an intimate relationship with the cockroaches, both cockroaches and termites having evolved from a common ancestor. The Blattodea and the mantises are now all considered part of the superorder Dictyoptera. Blattodea includes approximately 4,400 species of cockroach in almost 500 genera, and about 3,000 species of termite in around 300 genera.
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattodea, which also includes termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. About four species are well known as pests.
Blaptica dubia, the Dubia roach, also known as the orange-spotted roach, Guyana spotted roach, or Argentinian wood roach, is a medium-sized species of cockroach which grows to around 40–45 mm (1.6–1.8 in). They are sexually dimorphic; adult males have full wings covering their body, while females have only tiny wing stubs, their tegmina (forewings) being around a fourth of their body length.
Eublaberus distanti, known as the six-spotted, four-spotted, four-spot, or Trinidad bat-cave roach or cockroach, is a primarily cave-dwelling Central and South American cockroach of the genus Eublaberus.
Cariblatta lutea is a small species of cockroach native to the United States and other countries, measuring usually around 7 millimeters long as an adult and under 2 millimeters from head tip to abdomen tip at the 1st instar or hatchling. It consists of two subspecies, the small yellow cockroach, and the least yellow cockroach.
Parcoblatta divisa, the southern wood cockroach, is a species of cockroach native to the United States.
Parcoblatta bolliana, Boll's wood cockroach or Boll's wood roach, is a small species of wood cockroach native to the United States, measuring around 11 mm (0.43 in) long.
Parcoblatta uhleriana, the Uhler's wood cockroach, is a species of Parcoblatta native to the United States and Canada. It is a forest species also found in disturbed and urban environments. The male of the species flies freely, while the female does not fly.
Parcoblatta lata, the broad wood cockroach, is a species of wood cockroach native to the United States. It is one of the largest species of wood cockroaches.
Parcoblatta caudelli, Caudell's wood cockroach or Caudell's wood roach, is a species of cockroach native to the United States.
Parcoblatta desertae, the desert wood cockroach or desert cockroach, is a species of Parcoblatta endemic to the United States state of Texas.
Parcoblatta americana, the western wood cockroach, is a species of wood cockroach that occurs in Mexico and the western United States.
Parcoblatta notha, the Arizona wood cockroach, is a species of wood cockroach that occurs only in the southwestern US state of Arizona. It is a relatively large, light colored member of the 12-species Parcoblatta genus of wood cockroaches. The male has fully developed wings and is able to fly, while the female wings are around half as long and does not fly.
Schizopilia fissicollis is a species of cockroach living in Suriname and French Guiana.