Panesthia is a large genus of burrowing giant cockroach in the subfamily Panesthiinae.[1][2] It is subsocial and its species are mainly found in Southeast Asia, coastal East Asia, Australasia, and Indo-Malaysia.[2][3]

Panesthia
Panesthia augustipennis cognata
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Family: Blaberidae
Subfamily: Panesthiinae
Genus: Panesthia
Serville, 1831
Synonyms
  • Dicellonotus Butler, 1882
  • Proterodia Costa, 1866

Many species 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.[5]

Species list

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References

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  1. ^ Zicha, Ondrej. "BioLib: Biological library". www.biolib.cz (in Czech). Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  2. ^ a b "Definition of PANESTHIA". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  3. ^ "Panesthia Serville, 1831". www.gbif.org. Retrieved 2022-10-30.
  4. ^ 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. doi:10.1016/0022-1910(89)90016-4. ISSN 0022-1910.
  5. ^ 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. 14 (9): 768. doi:10.3390/insects14090768. ISSN 2075-4450. PMC 10531843. PMID 37754736.