List of cockroaches of Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a tropical island situated close to the southern tip of India. The invertebrate fauna is as large as it is common to other regions of the world. There are about 2 million species of arthropods found in the world, and still it is counting. So many new species are discover up to this time also. So it is very complicated and difficult to summarize the exact number of species found within a certain region.

The following list is about Cockroaches recorded in Sri Lanka.

Cockroach

Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea

Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattodea, which also includes termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. About four species are well known as pests. Cockroaches are somewhat generalized insects without special adaptations like the sucking mouthparts of Hemiptera; they have chewing mouthparts and are likely among the most primitive of living neopteran insects. They are common and hardy insects, and can tolerate a wide range of environments from Arctic cold to tropical heat. Tropical cockroaches are often much bigger than temperate species, and, contrary to popular opinion, extinct cockroach relatives and 'roachoids' such as the Carboniferous Archimylacris and the Permian Apthoroblattina were not as large as the biggest modern species.

Cockroaches are members of the order Blattodea, which includes the termites, a group of insects once thought to be separate from cockroaches. Currently, there are 4,600 species described and over 460 genera worldwide.[1][2]

The following list provide the cockroaches currently identified in Sri Lanka. An exclusive update and taxonomic research on cockroaches in Sri Lanka has been not under taken so far by the scientific community.[3] With records and few earlier studies, they have found that 66 species of cockroaches can be found from Sri Lanka,[4] belongs to 6 families and 31 genera.[5][6]

Endemic species are denoted as E.

Family: Blaberidae - Giant cockroaches

Family: Blattellidae - Wood cockroaches

Family: Blattidae - Household cockroaches

Family: Corydiidae - Sand cockroaches

Family: Nocticolidae

References

  1. Beccaloni, G. W. (2014). "Cockroach Species File Online. Version 5.0".
  2. "Blattodea (Cockroaches & Termites)". CSIRO Entomology. Retrieved 21 November 2015.
  3. Roth, Louis M. "The cockroach genera Anaplecta, Anaplectella, Anaplectoidea, and Malaccina Blattaria, Blattellidae: Anaplectinae and Blattellinae)". Taylor Fracis Online. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  4. Bambaradeniya, Channa N. B. "The Fauna of Sri Lanka: Status of Taxonomy, Research, and Conservation". Amazon.com. Google books. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
  5. "Cockroach diversity in Sri Lanka". insectoid.info. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  6. Anisyutkin, Leonid N. "On cockroaches of the subfamily Epilamprinae (Dictyoptera: Blaberidae) from South India and Sri Lanka, with descriptions of new taxa" (PDF). Zootaxa. Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  7. "species Indoapterolampra rugosiuscula Anisyutkin, 2014". Cockroach Species File (Version 5.0/5.0). Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  8. "species Morphna lucida Anisyutkin, 2014". Cockroach Species File (Version 5.0/5.0). Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  9. "species Anaplecta srilanka Fernando, 1957". Cockroach Species File (Version 5.0/5.0). Retrieved 7 June 2016.
  10. "species Blattella humbertiana (Saussure, 1863)". Cockroach Species File (Version 5.0/5.0). Retrieved 7 June 2016.
This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 9/27/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.