BIOTIC ASSOCIATIONS OF COCKROACHES — ROTH & WILLIS 269 



Family CHARACIDAE 



Cyrtocharax magdalenae essequibensis (Eigenmann) 



(z= Cynopotamiis essequibensis) 



Chalceus macrolepidotus Cuvier and Valenciennes 



The only other records of cockroaches being eaten by fish pertain 

 to the use of cockroaches as bait.® Captain WiUiam Owen (in Web- 

 ster, 1834) stated that the Chinese used cockroaches as bait in their 

 fishing excursions. At Reelfoot Lake, Tennessee, Blatta orientalis 

 were kept in large numbers by bait dealers and were sold to fishermen 

 who used them for catching Lepomis pallidus, a sunfish locally known 

 as bream, blue bream, or bluegill (Rau, 1944). In Indiana, oriental 

 cockroaches were collected at a city dump by fishermen (Gould, 

 1941). Peterson (1956) states that cockroaches are satisfactory bait 

 for bluegills, crappies, channel cat, blue heads, and large mouth black 

 bass. 



Class AMPHIBIA^ 



Order CAUDATA 



Family PLETHODONTIDAE 



Plethodon glutinosus (Green) 



Natural prey. — Cryptocercus punctulatus, U.S.A. (Honigberg, 

 1953) : Protozoa which are normally only found in C. punctulatus 

 were present in the intestine of the salamander indicating that this 

 cockroach had been eaten by the amphibian. 



^archy (Marquis, 1931) was living in a dream world when he typed: 



"there is always 

 something to be thankful 

 for you would not 

 think that a cockroach 

 had much ground 

 for optimism 

 but as the fishing season 

 opens up i grow 

 more and more 

 cheerful at the thought 

 that nobody ever got 

 the notion of using 

 cockroaches for bait" 



s Classification of Amphibia and Reptilia follows Hegner (1936). 



