Identification, Images, & Information
For Insects, Spiders & Their Kin
For the United States & Canada
Clickable Guide
Moths Butterflies Flies Caterpillars Flies Dragonflies Flies Mantids Cockroaches Bees and Wasps Walkingsticks Earwigs Ants Termites Hoppers and Kin Hoppers and Kin Beetles True Bugs Fleas Grasshoppers and Kin Ticks Spiders Scorpions Centipedes Millipedes

Calendar
Upcoming Events

Photos of insects and people from the 2024 BugGuide gathering in Idaho July 24-27

Moth submissions from National Moth Week 2024

Photos of insects and people from the 2022 BugGuide gathering in New Mexico, July 20-24

Photos of insects and people from the Spring 2021 gathering in Louisiana, April 28-May 2

Photos of insects and people from the 2019 gathering in Louisiana, July 25-27

Photos of insects and people from the 2018 gathering in Virginia, July 27-29


Previous events


TaxonomyBrowseInfoImagesLinks
Books
Data

Order Blattodea - Cockroaches and Termites

 
 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ...
next page
last page

Order Blattodea. In: Zhang Z.-Q. (ed.) Animal biodiversity: An outline of higher-level classif. and survey of taxonomic richness
By Beccaloni G., Eggleton P.
Zootaxa 3703: 46–48, 2013

New Blattodea records from Mississippi and Alabama
By Schiff N.M., Schiefer T.L.
Entomological News 110: 240-242., 1999

Arizona termites of economic importance
By Baker P.B., Marchosky R.J., Jr., Yelich A.J.
The University of Arizona College of Agr. & Life Sci., Tucson, AZ. AZ1369: 1-20, 2005
Full text

nice booklet...

Annotated checklist of the cockroaches of Florida (Dictyoptera: Blattaria: Blattidae, Polyphagidae, Blattellidae, Blaberidae)
By Atkinson T.H., Koehler P.G., Patterson R.S.
Florida Entomologist 73: 303-327, 1990

Catalog and atlas of the cockroaches (Dictyoptera) of North America north of Mexico
By Atkinson T.H., Koehler P.G., Patterson R.S.
Misc. Publ. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 78: 1-86, 1991

Distribution and biology of the primitive dry-wood termite Pterotermes occidentis (Walker) (Kalotermitidae)
By W. L. Nutting
Psyche, 73(3): 165–179, 1966

Termite colony dynamics as revealed by the sex and caste-ratios of whole colonies of Incisitermes schwarzi
By Luykx, P
Insectes Sociaux 33 (3): 221–248, 1986

Dispersal of Attaphila fungicola, a symbiotic cockroach of leaf-cutter ants.
By Phillips, Z.I., M.M. Zhang, & U.G. Mueller.
Insectes Sociaux. 64(2): 277–284., 2017
Full Text

Phillips, Z.I., M.M. Zhang, & U.G. Mueller. (2017). Dispersal of Attaphila fungicola, a symbiotic cockroach of leaf-cutter ants. Insectes Sociaux. 64(2): 277–284.

Abstract

The myrmecophile cockroach Attaphila fungicola lives in the nests of leaf-cutter ants (Atta texana and A. cephalotes) and uses the female winged reproductives (i.e., female alates) of its host as vectors for the first phase of its dispersal. It is unknown whether A. fungicola remain with vectoring A. texana females after mating flights and throughout A. texana nest founding and subsequent colony development, or if the symbiotic cockroaches disperse to established A. texana colonies, either on their own or while still attached to vectoring A. texana females. We captured A. fungicola attached to A. texana female alates as they prepared for mating flights and measured their survivorship in artificial brood chambers with de-alate, recently mated A. texana queens and their incipient gardens, and in a non-natal established fungal garden tended by A. texana workers. After 13 days, 100% of A. fungicola had died in brood chambers with queens, while 100% of A. fungicola remained alive in the fungal garden chamber. We tested the feasibility of alternative modes of dispersal to established colonies by placing A. fungicola attached and unattached to vectoring female alates in the proximity of an established A. texana colony directly after a mating flight, and recorded whether A. fungicola entered the non-natal nest. A significantly higher proportion of A. fungicola attached to vectoring alates entered the nest compared to unattached A. fungicola. We also placed A. fungicola attached to vectoring alates in a foraging chamber of a laboratory colony to determine if, once in the nest, A. fungicola could navigate to the fungal garden chamber; 100% of A. fungicola detached from their vectoring alates and entered the fungal garden chamber. We tested alate preference of A. fungicola by placing A. fungicola separately in containers with one A. texana female alate and one male alate; after 2 h, 71% of A. fungicola were attached to female alates and 0% to male alates. Finally, we report the first record of a male A. fungicola collected during a mating flight of A. texana. These observations accumulated from field and laboratory studies suggest that A. fungicola vectored by A. texana female alates may not remain with foundresses, but instead disperse between established colonies through one or more alternative mechanisms. This study helps elucidate a tripartite ant-fungus-cockroach interaction, and provides a foundation for future research on Attaphila dispersal and reproductive biology.

 
 
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ...
next page
last page