Cryptocercus

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Brown-hooded cockroaches
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Arthropoda Class: Insecta Order: Blattaria Family: Cryptocercidae Genus: Cryptocercus Scudder, 1862
Species
Cryptocercus clevelandi Cryptocercus darwini Cryptocercus garciai Cryptocercus primarius Cryptocercus punctulatus Cryptocercus relictus Cryptocercus wrighti

Cryptocercus is a genus of cockroaches in the family Cryptocercidae, of which this genus is the only member. Species are known as wood roaches or brown-hooded cockroaches.

Since 1996, DNA studies have led to the North American species C. punctulatus being divided into 5 separate species, bringing the world-wide species count to seven.

Cryptocercus is especially notable for sharing numerous characteristics with termites, and phylogenetic studies have shown that this genus is more closely related to termites than it is to other cockroaches.

[edit] References

• Nalepa, C.A., Byers, G.W., Bandi, C. and Sironi, M. 1997. "Description of Cryptocercus clevelandi from the Northwestern United States, molecular analysis of bacterial symbionts in its fat body and notes on biology, distribution and biogeography." Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 90:416-424.
• Burnside, C.A., P.T. Smith and S. Kambhampati, 1999. "Three New Species of the Wood Roach, Cryptocercus (Blattodea: Cryptocercidae), From the Eastern United States." The World Wide Web Journal of Biology 4:1 [1]