Parcoblatta caudelli explained

Parcoblatta caudelli, Caudell's wood cockroach or Caudell's wood roach, is a species of cockroach native to the United States.

The male of the species has a pale clay-yellow head, underside, and legs. The back of its abdomen, pronotum disc, occiput (X), and a transverse bar in the middle of its face are a brownish-yellow. Tegmina are fully developed, and are slightly wider than the pronotum. It has long, thin cerci. While the species is the smallest of the pale brown species of the genus Parcoblatta, its abdomen is modified like Parcoblatta lata, the largest of the genus.

Fred A. Lawson wrote in 1967 that the female is fully winged and capable of flight, a trait he stated was unique among the Parcoblatta species in the United States, while a 2003 study involving P. caudelli caught in North Carolina characterized the female as flightless.

MaleFemale
Body length12.2-10.7-
Pronotum length2.9-3.2-
Pronotum width3.9-4.1abbr=onNaNabbr=on
Tegmina length11.8-11.4-
Tegmina width3.9-3.8-

Distribution

The distribution of the species is the United States, in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia. The species is considered adventive, but not established, in Ontario, Canada.[1]

Habitat

The species is common in forested areas,[2] and one researcher collected specimens from an old sawdust pile, at a former sawmill on the University of Tennessee Farm.

Notes and References

  1. Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Ontario . 118 . 0071-0768 . 1987 . The Canadian orthopteroid insects summarized and updated, including a tabular check-list and ecological notes . Vickery . VR . Scudder . GGE . 25–46 .
  2. Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for volatile sex pheromones in Parcoblatta wood cockroaches . Gemeno. César. Snook. Kirsten. Benda. Nicole. Coby Schal. Schal. Coby. Journal of Chemical Ecology. 29. 1. 2003. 37–54. 0098-0331. 10.1023/A:1021920428624. PDF. ...we hypothesized that female P. lata and P. caudelli, which are flightless, produce long-range volatile sex pheromones....