BIOTIC ASSOCIATIONS OF COCKROACHES — ROTH & WILLIS 5 



some work on their hymenopterous parasites, we have questioned 

 certain records in the literature. Other dubious records which have 

 been perpetuated from one pubHcation to the next, but which ap- 

 parently were not based on fact, have also been questioned or have 

 been clarified with the aid of specialists in particular groups. 



Because the records cover a period of many years, the names of 

 many of the organisms as well as the names of some of the cock- 

 roaches have been changed. Although it would have been compara- 

 tively simple to list the names as they appeared in the original ref- 

 erences, this would have resulted in misleading redundancy with the 

 same organism being catalogued under several synonyms. We have 

 attempted to list each organism by its currently accepted name. How- 

 ever, no attempt was made to prepare complete taxonomic synonymies ; 

 the only synonyms given are those that identify the organisms by the 

 names used by the authors of the papers cited. The synonyms under 

 which the cockroaches may have been cited originally are listed in 

 section II. The synonyms of associated organisms are listed with 

 each organism. Although authorities for the name changes of the 

 cockroaches are given, these workers are not necessarily those who 

 were initially responsible for the synonymies. Various sections have 

 been checked by specialists in the particular groups. Although we have 

 accepted name changes suggested by these reviewers, we assume full 

 responsibility for the names. 



FUTURE WORK 



After having examined thousands of references on cockroaches, 

 we are impressed by how little is known about the biology of most 

 species. As a conservative estimate there are 3,500 described species 

 of Blattaria (J. W. H. Rehn, 1951). In our literature survey we 

 found records of biotic associations for about 400 species. Un- 

 fortunately, many of these records contain only a sentence or two of 

 biological information. Our detailed knowledge of cockroaches is 

 based on studies of the few domiciliary pests that man attempts to 

 eradicate. Comparable studies of the bionomics of the less-well-known 

 species should add much valuable information to our knowledge of 

 this ancient group. 



Our understanding of most predator-prey and parasite-host rela- 

 tionships has barely progressed beyond the taxonomic stage. The total 

 effect of predators and parasites in limiting natural populations of 

 cockroaches remains to be determined. It is still not known how, for 

 example, predatory or parasitic wasps select specific cockroaches from 



