BLATTELLA ASAHINAI INTRODUCED INTO FLORIDA 
(BLATTARIA: BLATTELLIDAE). 
By Louis M. Roth* 
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University 
Cambridge, MA 02138 
On March 3, 1986, Dr. Philip G. Koehler of the Florida Exten- 
sion Service, University of Florida, sent me some cockroaches from 
Lakeland, Florida, for identification. These had been submitted to 
him by Mr. Ed Shower, a pest control worker, who referred to 
them as German cockroaches, but pointed out that they were un- 
usual because they flew readily and were common outdoors. Until 
now only 2 species of Blattella occur in the United States, namely, 
vaga Hebard (India, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mexico, 
and the United States [California, Arizona, Texas]), and the cos- 
mopolitan germanica (Linn.), both originating from Asia (Roth, 
1985). 
I decided that the “unusual germanica ” could be Blattella bey- 
bienkoi Roth, which is found in Sri Lanka, Andaman Islands, 
Burma, Chagos Archipelago, China, India, and Thailand (Roth, 
1985). However, it also agreed with specimens of Blattella asahinai 
Mizukubo, described from Okinawa (Mizukubo, 1981; Asahina, 
1985). I was unaware of this species when I completed my revision 
of Blattella and submitted it for publication in 1982. 
I sent several Lakeland specimens to Dr. Mizukubo, who con- 
cluded that they are asahinai. He also made a detailed comparison 
of Sri Lanka paratypes of B. beybienkoi, and asahinai from Florida 
and Okinawa, and could find no significant differences between the 
two species, which I am here synonymizing. 
My (Roth, 1970) attempts to cross B. germanica with 6 other 
species of Blattella, namely, bisignata (Brunner), lituricollis 
(Walker), sauteri (Karny), roederi Roth [as sp. C], humbertiana 
(Saussure) [as sp. D], and lobiventris [as sp. E], were generally 
unsuccessful. B. germanica males mated only once with bisignata 
♦Correspondence: 81 Brush Hill Road, Box 238, Sherborn, MA 01770 
Manuscript received by the editor August 23, 1986 
371 
