Cryptocercus
Genus of cockroaches
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cryptocercus is a genus of Dictyoptera (cockroaches and allies) and the sole member of its own family Cryptocercidae.[1] Species are known as wood roaches or brown-hooded cockroaches. These roaches are subsocial, their young requiring considerable parental interaction. They also share wood-digesting gut bacteria types with wood-eating termites, and are therefore seen as evidence of a close genetic relationship, that termites are essentially evolved from social cockroaches.[2]
| Cryptocercus - brown-hooded cockroaches | |
|---|---|
| |
| Cryptocercus clevelandi | |
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Blattodea |
| Superfamily: | Blattoidea |
| Epifamily: | Cryptocercoidae |
| Family: | Cryptocercidae Handlirsch, 1925 |
| Genus: | Cryptocercus Scudder, 1862 |
| Species | |
Cryptocercus is especially notable for sharing numerous characteristics with termites, and phylogenetic studies have shown this genus is more closely related to termites than it is to other cockroaches.[3] These two lineages probably shared a common ancestor in the early Cretaceous.[4]
Species
Found in North America and (especially temperate) Asia, there are 12 known species:
- Cryptocercus clevelandi Byers, 1997
- Cryptocercus darwini Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999
- Cryptocercus garciai Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999
- Cryptocercus hirtus Grandcolas, Bellés, 2005
- Cryptocercus kyebangensis Grandcolas, 2001
- Cryptocercus matilei Grandcolas, 2000
- Cryptocercus meridianus Grandcolas, Legendre, 2005
- Cryptocercus parvus Grandcolas, Park, 2005
- Cryptocercus primarius Bey-Bienko, 1938
- Cryptocercus punctulatus Scudder, 1862
- Cryptocercus relictus Bey-Bienko, 1935
- Cryptocercus wrighti Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999
