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Type: Correspondence
Published: 2017-02-13
Page range: 567–568
Abstract views: 44
PDF downloaded: 1

Sound production in an Australian cockroach, Megazosteria patula (Walker) (Blattodea: Blattidae: Polyzosteriinae)

Adjunct Professor, School of Marine and Biological Sciences, James Cook University, Smithfield, Queensland, Australia 4870.
Blattodea Blattidae Polyzosteriinae

Abstract

The large, diurnal Australian cockroach, Megazosteria patula (Walker), produces a sound when disturbed. The sound was found to be a form of stridulation caused by the rubbing of pegs on the underside of the thoracic segments against a ridge on the following segment.

 

References

  1. Rentz, D.C.F. (1996) Grasshopper Country: The abundant orthopteroid insects of Australia. University of New South Wales Press, Sydney, 284 pp.

    Wallbank, B.E. & Waterhouse, D.F. (1970) The defensive secretions of Polyzosteria and related cockroaches. Journal of Insect Physiology, 16 (11), 2081–2096.
    https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1910(70)90081-8