A Study of Cockroach Behavior

Calling behavior of the female german cockroach,Blattella germanica (Dictyoptera: Blattellidae)

“…High population densities at resource sites, such as food, water, and shelter, and aggregation pheromones have been presumed to bring male and female German cockroaches to common areas Schal et al, 1984). Upon contact the female employs a nonVolatile sex pheromone to elicit courtship wingraising responses in males (Roth and Willis, 1952;Nishida and Fukami, 1983;. The data we present herein suggest that volatile sex pheromones, released during the calling behavior, are used to attract males to sex-ually receptive females.…”

“…It has been the subject of intensive investigations on various aspects of biology and population suppression (reviews by Comwell, 1968;Schal and Hamilton, 1990). Courtship in the German cockroach is mediated by a female contact sex pheromone (Roth and Willis, 1952) that is composed of at least four components, each of which elicits the complete behavioral sequence of the male courtship wing-raising response (Nishida and Fukami, 1983;. The prevailing view is that mate-finding in B. germanica involves random encounters between females and males, facilitated by the clumped distribution of the insects which is mediated by aggregation pheromones Schal et al, 1984).…”

The Reproduction of Cockroaches

“…Feeding by the female on the glandular secretion or over the dorsal abdominal surface of the male cockroach has been observed in Blattella germanica (Sikora, 1918;Wille, 1920; Roth and Willis, 1952) ; Blatta orientalis (Roth and Willis, 1952) ; Ectobius lapponicus Linnaeus and Ectobius sylvestris (Poda) (Koncek, 1924) ; Supella supellectilium (Roth, 1952) ; Blattella vaga, Eurycotis floridana (Walker), Nauphoeta cinerea, and Lencophaea maderae (Roth and Willis, unpublished data). The external appearance of the tergal gland may vary considerably between species and genera (cf. pi.…”

“…17) formed from the secretions of the male accessory sex glands. Spermatophores have been found in males of Blatta orientalis (Zabinski, 1933) ; Blattella germanica (Khalifa, 1950;Roth and Willis, 1952) ; Periplaneta americana (Gupta, 1947;Roth and Willis, 1952); Leucophaea maderae (van Wyk, 1952) ; Eurycotis floridana and Nauphoeta cinerea (Roth VOL. 122 and Willis, unpublished data) ; and Blaberus craniijer (Nutting, J 953)-Presumably spermatophores are produced by other blattids as well.…”

“…16) (Roth and Willis, 1952). The following description of spermatophore formation is taken from Khalifa (1950) (Khalifa, 1950), and a male may also copulate and produce a spermatophore more than once (Cros, 1942 ;Roth and Willis, 1952) . The work of the male is now done.…”