2016 personal communication
Genetic data indicate that most field-collected woodroach pairs are unrelated
Yaguchi, H., Hayashi, Y., Tohoku, T., Nalepa, C. A., & Maekawa, K. (2017, June).
Woodroaches in the genus Cryptocercus are subsocial cockroaches that utilize decaying logs for both shelter and as a food source (Nalepa, 1984). Based on molecular phylogenetic studies of multiple independent data (e.g., Lo et al., 2000; Inward et al., 2007), Cryptocercus and termites are shown to have a sister group relationship within the cockroach clade. The 2 groups also share multiple traits related to ecology, social structure, symbionts, and digestive physiology. Consequently, to discuss eusocial evolution in termites, Cryptocercus would serve as an important group for a “model-taxon by homology” (Klass et al., 2008). Adults of Cryptocercus spp. are completely wingless cockroaches. They typically pair up in late summer/early fall and initiate nest building, but they do not reproduce until the following summer (Nalepa, 1984). At that time, they produce several (up to 5) oothecae, each containing about 10−40 eggs; they then care for the hatched offspring (Nalepa, 1988, 1990). Coexisting with parents is necessary for the optimum development of offspring (Nalepa & Arellano, 2016). The logs these insects use for food and shelter vary greatly in size and are patchily distributed. Consequently, there is a possibility that new adults may either pair up and utilize decaying wood adjacent to their natal nest in a large log, leading to a relatively inbred mating strategy, or disperse to initiate nests in other logs on the forest floor, resulting in outbreeding. Studies of dispersing adults utilizing pitfall traps indicated that some females of C. punctulatus had sperm in their spermathe-