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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 counting.
The following list is about Cockroaches recorded in Sri Lanka.
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.
Dictyoptera is an insect superorder that includes two extant orders of polyneopterous insects: the order Blattodea and the order Mantodea (mantises). While all modern Dictyoptera have short ovipositors, the oldest fossils of Dictyoptera have long ovipositors, much like members of the Orthoptera.
Tickell's blue flycatcher is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family. This is an insectivorous species which breeds in tropical Asia, from the Indian Subcontinent eastwards to Bangladesh and western Myanmar. The Indochinese blue flycatcher was formerly considered conspecific. They are blue on the upperparts and the throat and breast are rufous. They are found in dense scrub to forest habitats.
An ootheca is a type of egg mass made by any member of a variety of species including mollusks, mantises, and cockroaches.
The cockroach is the largest species of common cockroach, and often considered a pest. In certain regions of the U.S. it is colloquially known as the waterbug, though it is not a true waterbug since it is not aquatic. It is also known as the ship cockroach, kakerlac, and Bombay canary. It is often misidentified as a palmetto bug.
Ectobiidae is a family of the order Blattodea (cockroaches). This family contains many of the smaller common household pest cockroaches, among others. They are sometimes called wood cockroaches. A few notable species include:
The smokybrown cockroach is a large species of cockroach, winged, and growing to a length of 1¼–1⅜ inch.
Blattodea is an order of insects that contains cockroaches and termites. Formerly, the termites were considered a separate order, Isoptera, but genetic and molecular evidence suggests termites evolved from within the cockroach lineage, cladistically making them cockroaches as well. The Blattodea and the mantises are now all considered part of the superorder Dictyoptera. Blattodea includes approximately 4,400 species of cockroach in almost 500 genera, and about 3,000 species of termite in around 300 genera.
Cockroaches are insects of the order Blattodea, which also includes termites. About 30 cockroach species out of 4,600 are associated with human habitats. Some species are well-known as pests.
Blattoptera, or proto-cockroaches, is a name given to various "roachid" fossil insects related to cockroaches, termites and mantises, and of general cockroach-like appearance and possibly habit. The group is on the rank of an order, though being paraphyletic is most often given without formal taxonomic rank. Several alternative names have been suggested for this fossil group, including Blattodea, a name currently used for the group including the modern cockroaches as well as their fossil relatives.
Wildlife of Sri Lanka includes its flora and fauna and their natural habitats. Sri Lanka has one of the highest rates of biological endemism in the world.
Blattabacterium is a genus of obligate mutualistic endosymbiont bacteria that are believed to inhabit all species of cockroach studied to date, with the exception of the genus Nocticola. The genus' presence in the termite Mastotermes darwiniensis led to speculation, later confirmed, that termites and cockroaches are evolutionarily linked.
Neostylopyga is a genus of cockroaches described by Robert Walter Campbell Shelford in 1911. Some of the species are strikingly coloured and patterned and are popular in cultures under the common name harlequin roaches or harlequin cockroaches.
Diploptera punctata or the Pacific beetle cockroach is a species of cockroach in the family Blaberidae and subfamily Diplopterinae. It is one of the few cockroach species that is viviparous. Adults are chemically defended, having a modified tracheal gland and spiracle on each side which squirts quinones which can poison or discourage a predator.
The cohort Polyneoptera is a proposed taxonomic ranking for the Orthoptera and all other Neopteran insects believed to be more closely related to Orthoptera than to any other insect orders. These winged insects, now in the Paraneoptera, were formerly grouped as the Hemimetabola or Exopterygota on the grounds that they have no metamorphosis, the wings gradually developing externally throughout the nymphal stages.
Blattoidea is a superfamily of cockroaches and termites in the order Blattodea. There are about 17 families and more than 4,100 described species in Blattoidea.
Archotermopsidae is a family of termites in the order Blattodea, known as dampwood termites, formerly included within the family Termopsidae. They constitute a small and rather primitive family with five extant genera and 13–20 living species. They may be a nuisance, but compared to the drywood termites (Kalotermitidae), usually do not cause extensive damage to buildings or other man-made structures. As their name implies, they eat wood that is not dried out, perhaps even rotting, and consequently of little use to humans.