Parcoblatta virginica

Parcoblatta virginica, the Virginia wood cockroach,[2] is a small cockroach species of the genus Parcoblatta, measuring about a centimeter long as an adult.

Parcoblatta virginica
Adult male
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Blattodea
Family: Ectobiidae
Genus: Parcoblatta
Species:
P. virginica
Binomial name
Parcoblatta virginica
Synonyms
  • Ischnoptera borealis
    Brunner von Wattenwyl 1865[1]
  • Temnopteryx virginica
    Brunner von Wattenwyl 1865[1]

Description

Adult males of this species like adult males of several other species of Parcoblatta are full winged and orangish in color. Adult females are brachypterous and can be from rusty brown to almost black. Nymphs can be brown to black. Adults and older nymphs usually have a blackish or dark stained head.

Male[3] Female[3]
Body length 11.5–15.4 mm (0.45–0.61 in) 10.3–12.5 mm (0.41–0.49 in)
Pronotum length 2.7–3.6 mm (0.11–0.14 in) 3.2–3.8 mm (0.13–0.15 in)
Pronotum width 3.4–4.4 mm (0.13–0.17 in) 4.1–4.9 mm (0.16–0.19 in)
Tegmina length 12.8–16.7 mm (0.50–0.66 in) 3.3–4.9 mm (0.13–0.19 in)
Tegmina width 4.3–5.7 mm (0.17–0.22 in) 2.7–3.3 mm (0.11–0.13 in)

Distribution

The distribution of the species is limited to Ontario, Canada[4] and the eastern United States, including Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.[5]

Additional images
  • Adult female P. virginica from North Carolina

References
  1. "Synonyms of Virginia wood cockroach (Parcoblatta virginica)". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 24 March 2014.
  2. "Common Names for Virginia Wood Cockroach (Parcoblatta virginica)". Encyclopedia of Life. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
  3. Blatchley, Willis Stanley (1920). Orthoptera of northeastern America: with especial reference to the faunas of Indiana and Florida. The Nature Publishing Company. pp. 82–83.
  4. Vickery, VR; Scudder, GGE (1987). "The Canadian orthopteroid insects summarized and updated, including a tabular check-list and ecological notes". Proceedings of the Entomological Society of Ontario. 118: 25–46. ISSN 0071-0768.
  5. Atkinson, Thomas H.; Koehler, Philip G.; Patterson, Richard S. (1990). "Annotated checklist of cockroaches of Florida (Dictyoptera: Blattaria: Blattidae, Polyphagidae, Blattellidae, Blaberidae)" (PDF). Florida Entomologist. 73 (2): 318. doi:10.2307/3494816.
  • Drawings from a 1917 article[1] by Morgan Hebard. Plate IV includes a dorsal views of a male and a female of P. virginica (figures 1 and 5), and views of body parts of the male (figure 2-4), with a key to the drawings on page 277.
  • Black and white photograph of top view of P. virginica female with partly formed ootheca, from Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.


  1. Hebard, Morgan (1917). "The Blattidae of North America north of the Mexican boundary". Memoirs of the American Entomological Society. American Entomological Society (2): 309. (The article comprises the whole issue.)
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