Panesthiinae Explained

Panesthiinae is a subfamily of giant cockroaches (Blaberidae) mostly found in Indo-Malaysia and Australia.^[1] ^[2] ^[3]

Many species within this subfamily of cockroaches feed on wood, the best-studied being Panesthia angustipennis. Until recently it was believed that Panesthia and other members of Panesthiinae do not rely on the hindgut for wood digestion,^[4] but it is now believed that a "fiber-associated microbiome" might be contributing to up to 1/5th of the total xylanase and cellulase activities in the gut of P. angustipennis and the more social Salganea taiwanensis.^[5]

Genera

The Cockroach species file and BioLib list:

Ancaudellia
Annamoblatta
Caeparia
Microdina
Miopanesthia
Panesthia
Salganea

Notes and References

Web site: Panesthiinae - Encyclopedia of Life . 2022-10-29 . eol.org.
Roth . L. M. . 1977 . A taxonomic revision of the Panesthiinae of the world. I. The Panesthiinae of Australia (Dictyoptera : Blattaria : Blaberidae) . Australian Journal of Zoology Supplementary Series . en . 25 . 48 . 1–112 . 10.1071/ajzs048.
Web site: Zicha . Ondrej . BioLib: Biological library . 2022-10-29 . www.biolib.cz.
Scrivener . A. M. . Slaytor . M. . Rose . H. A. . 1989-01-01 . Symbiont-independent digestion of cellulose and starch in Panesthia cribrata Saussure, an Australian wood-eating cockroach . Journal of Insect Physiology . 35 . 12 . 935–941 . 10.1016/0022-1910(89)90016-4 . 1989JInsP..35..935S . 0022-1910.
Schwarz . Melbert . Tokuda . Gaku . Osaki . Haruka . Mikaelyan . Aram . September 2023 . Reevaluating Symbiotic Digestion in Cockroaches: Unveiling the Hindgut's Contribution to Digestion in Wood-Feeding Panesthiinae (Blaberidae) . Insects . en . 14 . 9 . 768 . 10.3390/insects14090768 . 37754736 . 10531843 . 2075-4450 . free .