Florida woods cockroach

Florida woods cockroach
Nymphs of Eurycotis floridana
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Family: Blattidae
Genus: Eurycotis
Species: E. floridana
Binomial name
Eurycotis floridana
F. Walker, 1868
Synonyms
  • Platyzosteria ingens Scudder, 1877[1]
  • Platyzosteria sabaliana Scudder, 1877[1]
  • Periplaneta semipicta Walker, F., 1868[1]
  • Periplaneta floridana Walker, F., 1868[1]

The Florida woods cockroach (Eurycotis floridana), palmetto bug,[2] is a large species of cockroach which typically grows to a length of 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in).[3] When alarmed, adults can eject an extremely foul smelling directional spray up to one meter,[4] which inspired several of its other common names: Florida skunk roach, Florida stinkroach, skunk cockroach, skunk roach, stinking cockroach, and stinkroach.[5] Two other naming variations include Florida cockroach and Florida woods roach.[5]

The Florida woods cockroach looks remarkably similar to the female Oriental cockroach (Blatta orientalis), and the two could be mistaken for each other by the casual observer. The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), another common Florida insect, is sometimes mistakenly referred to as a palmetto bug.[2][6]

The Florida woods cockroach is slower moving than many other cockroach species. It prefers damp locations, lots of moisture, and does well in warm, damp climates. It is found in its native habitats, such as Florida and the West Indies. The species wanders indoors at times, especially into damp locations, such as bathrooms; however, it prefers the outdoors and is not considered a major pest in the home. It is cold-intolerant and requires a warm, sub-tropical or tropical climate. It can be found in sheltered outdoor locations, such as under leaf litter, in tree holes, and under lumber and boards, and other crevices, as well as in bushes and wooded areas. Often it can be seen on palmetto trees, which gave it one of its early popular names, the Palmetto bug.[7]

Description

The Florida wood cockroach is a dark to blackish brown, or a reddish brown after recent molting.[3] Tegmina (forewings) are very short, extending just past the mesonotum (the dorsal plate just behind the pronotum), and hind wings are absent.[3]

Adults typically range from 30–40 mm (1.2–1.6 in).[3] The winning specimen in a Florida cockroach size contest was a Florida wood cockroach which measured 62 mm (2.429 in).[8]

The species' dark brown ootheca (egg case) is 14–16 mm (0.55–0.63 in) long, contains 21-23 eggs, and has indentations that show where the eggs are located.[3]

Reproduction

Males can mate about 18 days after maturation, and females produce oothecae approximately every 8 days, beginning about 55 days after maturation.[3] The oothecae are buried in soil or decaying logs, and hatch in 50 days at 30–36 °C (86–97 °F).[3] Parthenogenesis (asexual reproduction) can occur, but the nymphal clones do not develop to adulthood.[3]

Defense

When alarmed, adults can emit an extremely foul smelling glandular secretion through a sternal membrane, ejected up to 1 m (3.3 ft).[3][9] Nymphs do not have this ability, and the secretion is built up over approximately 60 days from its final molt into adulthood.[3][9] Males that were artificially drained required 30 days to replenish the stored amount.[9] The secretion is composed primarily of (E)-2-hexenal, (E)-2-hexenol and (E)-2-hexenoic acid.[9]

The secretion is used both to deter antagonizers, and as an alarm pheromone to elicit escape responses in others of its species.[4] It can irritate the eyes of humans, and can be toxic to the cockroach in a small container.[3] In tests with two species of mice abundant in central Florida, the chemical defense was found effective at deterring predation by Peromyscus polionotus, but at least some Peromyscus gossypinus were able to avoid chemical exposure by pushing the cockroach's abdomen downward and feeding from its head end.[10]

Habitat

Natural habitats of the species include holes in dead trees, stumps, and woodpiles, cavities beneath bark, and sometimes leaf litter.[3] It occasionally enters buildings.[3] It typically only becomes established in non habitable areas of buildings. It is not uncommon for Palmetto bugs to become established inside attics where they commonly leave behind their distinctively large droppings along with occasional body parts from dead specimens.

Distribution

The species is reported in the West Indies and in a limited southeastern region of United States, consisting of the state of Florida, and coastal regions of Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Mississippi.[4][11] It is considered adventive, but not established, in the Canadian provinces of Newfoundland and Labrador and Nova Scotia.[12]

Parasites

The wasp species Aprostocetus hagenowii is an egg parasite of several species of cockroaches, including Eurycotis floridana.[3] The small, parasitic wasp deposits its eggs into the ootheca of the cockroach, resulting in an average of 648 parasites per ootheca.[3] The parasites eat the cockroach eggs and emerge from the ootheca as adults.[3]

Another wasp species, Anastatus floridanus, is also an ootheca parasite of Eurycotis floridana, laying eggs in an ootheca carried by the female, or into a deposited ootheca as many as 36 days old.[3] Several A. floridanus wasps may lay eggs in the same ootheca. As many as 306 adult wasps may develop from one cockroach ootheca.[3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Synonyms of Florida Woods Cockroach (Eurycotis floridana )". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 Poertner, Bo (10 December 1997). "Palmetto bug - roach or beetle? Quit debating, we have the answer". Orlando Sentinel. Retrieved 9 December 2013.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Robinson, William H. (2005). Urban Insects and Arachnids: A Handbook of Urban Entomology. Cambridge University Press. pp. 52,233. ISBN 978-0-521-81253-5.
  4. 1 2 3 Bibbs, Christopher S.; Baldwin, Rebecca W. (December 2011). "Florida woods cockroach Eurycotis floridana (Walker)" (PDF). Electronic Data Information Source. University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) Extension (EENY-514).
  5. 1 2 "Common Names for Florida Woods Cockroach (Eurycotis floridana )". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Common Names for American Cockroach (Periplaneta americana)". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 23 March 2014.
  7. ↑ "Palmetto Bug". Wild Florida. Retrieved 8 April 2011.
  8. ↑ Morris, Bob (16 August 1986). "Florida's megaroach crawls all over Texas'". Orlando Sentinel.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Farine, Jean-Pierre; Everaerts, Claude; Abed, Dehbia; Brossut, Remy (2000). "Production, regeneration and biochemical precursors of the major components of the defensive secretion of Eurycotis floridana (Dictyoptera, Polyzosteriinae)" (PDF). Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. 30 (7): 601–608. doi:10.1016/S0965-1748(00)00065-5. ISSN 0965-1748.
  10. ↑ O'Connell, Timothy J.; Reagle, Nathan Z. (2002). "Is the chemical defense of Eurycotis floridana a deterrent to small mammal predators?" (PDF). Florida Scientist. 65: 245–249.
  11. ↑ Bell, William J. (1981). The Laboratory Cockroach: Experiments in Cockroach Anatomy, Physiology, and Behaviour. Chapman and Hall. p. 3. ISBN 978-0-412-23990-8.
  12. ↑ 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.
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