Family BLATTIDAE

Blattidae

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Family BLATTIDAE

Compiler and date details

A.M.E. Roach & D.C.F. Rentz, CSIRO Entomology, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia

Introduction

The Blattidae are a large group with four subfamilies and over 500 species worldwide. Of the four subfamilies found in Australia, the Polyzosteriinae is the largest.

The Australian blattids were revised by Mackerras (1965a, 1965b, 1965c, 1966a, 1966b, 1967a, 1967b, 1968a, 1968b) in a series of papers documenting their taxonomy, life histories and ecology. A perusal of these works will reveal that scant information is available on these latter two topics. A history of the study of Australian cockroaches is provided in Part 1 (1965a) of her series. A classification of the family by McKittrick & Mackerras (1965) served as the basis for the classification followed by both Mackerras (1970) and Roth (1991) in the textbook The Insects of Australia and is that which is followed here.

Most of the species of economic and medical interest are of the subfamily Blattinae. Periplaneta aboriginea Roth (1994) is an example of a native blattine not known to be of economic importance.

The recently defined subfamily Macrocercinae contains a single genus, Macrocerca. Known from Australia and New Guinea, the genus was previously placed in Blattellidae. All species have fully developed tegmina and wings and a slender body. They are nocturnal and occur on rainforest vegetation, especially dead leaves and have been found on tree trunks at night.

The large subfamily Polyzosteriinae comprises 14 genera and currently 205 Australian species, arranged in two tribes. Many species are diurnal and are often colourful. A number of nocturnal species are yellow and brown striped. One species in this subfamily is of economic importance because it occurs in numbers in houses and gardens on Norfolk Island. Methana marginalis was apparently brought to the island through commerce. In Queensland, where it occurs naturally, it appears not to cause any problems. The representatives of this subfamily were revised extensively by Mackerras in a series of papers. Keys to all the species are to be found in her papers but it must be realised that many additional species have been collected since they were prepared.

The subfamily Tryonicinae occurs in Australia and New Caledonia. Tryonicines are very similar in general appearance to Platyzosteria species.