''Parcoblatta bolliana'', Boll's wood cockroach or Boll's wood roach, is a small species of wood
cockroach
Cockroaches (or roaches) are a Paraphyly, paraphyletic group of insects belonging to Blattodea, containing all members of the group except termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are we ...
native to the United States, measuring around long.
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Description
''Parcoblatta bolliana'' is a small, slender species.[ The male has long ]tegmina
A tegmen (plural: ''tegmina'') designates the modified leathery front wing on an insect particularly in the orders Dermaptera ( earwigs), Orthoptera (grasshoppers, crickets and similar families), Mantodea (praying mantis), Phasmatodea (stick an ...
(outer forewings) and functioning hindwings, while the female tegmina are small oblong pads separated by more than twice their width, and its inner hindwings are absent.[ The female is stouter and more compact than the male, with a broader head and pronotum (the large plate directly behind the head).][
The male has a shining, dark brown head, pronotum disc, and base of tegmina, with fine and sparse yellowish hairs.][ It has paler brown legs, edges of the sides of its pronotum, and ends of its tegmina.][ Its ]ocelli
A simple eye (sometimes called a pigment pit) refers to a form of eye or an optical arrangement composed of a single lens and without an elaborate retina such as occurs in most vertebrates. In this sense "simple eye" is distinct from a multi-l ...
(simple eyes) are well defined and colored a dull yellow.[ Its pronotum has two oblique impressions near its base, connected by a short transverse impression.][
The female is chocolate brown, and its legs are generally darker than those of the male.][ Its ocelli are small spots, and its pronotum is widest just behind its middle.][
Specimens become much paler in the western part of its range, sometimes with only the head being dark.][
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Distribution
The distribution of the species is limited to the United States, including Alabama, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Texas.[
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Habitat
The species has been found under pine straw in pine woods in North Carolina, under dry cow dung
Cow dung, also known as cow pats, cow pies or cow manure, is the waste product ( faeces) of bovine animal species. These species include domestic cattle ("cows"), bison ("buffalo"), yak, and water buffalo. Cow dung is the undigested residu ...
in pine woods in Texas, beneath a pile of old boards in Nebraska, and extensively in grassland areas of Kansas, both in tall prairie grass as well as shorter grass.[
Tiny nymphs of the species, apparently first instar, have consistently been found living in the nests of the ant species '' Cremastogastor lineloata'' in Kansas.][ The ant often lives in the soil beneath large rocks.][ Adults of the cockroach species have not been found in the nests, but the young nymphs are raised among ''C. lineolata'' workers without apparent harm.][
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Additional Images
File:Parcoblatta bolliana Joyner Park NC.jpg, A young nymph
File:Parcoblatta bolliana nymphs.jpg, Nymphs of ''P. bolliana''. Possibly some in this photo are ''Parcoblatta uhleriana
''Parcoblatta uhleriana'', the Uhler's wood cockroach, is a species of ''Parcoblatta'' native to the United States and Canada. It is a forest species also found in disturbed and urban environments. The male of the species flies freely, while the ...
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References
Cockroaches
Insects described in 1893
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