Parcoblatta caudelli, Caudell's wood cockroach or Caudell's wood roach, is a species of cockroach native to the United States.[2][3]

Parcoblatta caudelli
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Family: Ectobiidae
Genus: Parcoblatta
Species:
P. caudelli
Binomial name
Parcoblatta caudelli
Hebard, 1917
Synonyms
  • Ischnoptera insolita Rehn, J. A. G. & Hebard, 1910[1]

The male of the species has a pale clay-yellow head, underside, and legs.[4] The back of its abdomen, pronotum disc, occiput (X), and a transverse bar in the middle of its face are a brownish-yellow.[4] Tegmina are fully developed, and are slightly wider than the pronotum.[4] It has long, thin cerci.[4] 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.[4]

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,[5] while a 2003 study involving P. caudelli caught in North Carolina characterized the female as flightless.[6]

Male[4] Female[4]
Body length 12.2–16.0 mm (0.48–0.63 in) 10.7–12.3 mm (0.42–0.48 in)
Pronotum length 2.9–3.4 mm (0.11–0.13 in) 3.2–3.6 mm (0.13–0.14 in)
Pronotum width 3.9–4.7 mm (0.15–0.19 in) 4.1 mm (0.16 in)
Tegmina length 11.8–16.0 mm (0.46–0.63 in) 11.4–11.8 mm (0.45–0.46 in)
Tegmina width 3.9–5.2 mm (0.15–0.20 in) 3.8–4.0 mm (0.15–0.16 in)

Distribution

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The distribution of the species is the United States, in Arkansas, the District of Columbia, Indiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, Texas, and Virginia.[3] The species is considered adventive, but not established, in Ontario, Canada.[7]

Habitat

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The species is common in forested areas,[6] and one researcher collected specimens from an old sawdust pile, at a former sawmill on the University of Tennessee Farm.[5]

References

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  1. ^ "Synonyms of Caudell's wood cockroach (Parcoblatta caudelli )". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
  2. ^ "ITIS Standard Report Page: Parcoblatta caudelli". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
  3. ^ a b Beccaloni, GW (2007). "species Parcoblatta caudelli Hebard, 1917". Blattodea Species File Online. Retrieved 2014-03-26.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g Blatchley, Willis Stanley (1920). Orthoptera of northeastern America: with especial reference to the faunas of Indiana and Florida. The Nature Publishing Company. pp. 89–90.
  5. ^ a b Lawson, Fred A. (1967). "Ecological and collecting notes on eight species of Parcoblatta (Orthoptera: Blattidae) and certain other cockroaches". Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society. 40 (3): 267–269. JSTOR 25083633.
  6. ^ a b Gemeno, César; Snook, Kirsten; Benda, Nicole; Schal, Coby (2003). "Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for volatile sex pheromones in Parcoblatta wood cockroaches" (PDF). Journal of Chemical Ecology. 29 (1): 37–54. doi:10.1023/A:1021920428624. ISSN 0098-0331. ...we hypothesized that female P. lata and P. caudelli, which are flightless, produce long-range volatile sex pheromones...
  7. ^ Vickery, VR; Scudder, GGE (1987). "The Canadian orthopteroid insects summarized and updated, including a tabular check-list and ecological notes". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Ontario. 118: 25–46. ISSN 0071-0768.