Hydrocarbon-Based Discrimination of Three North American Blattella Cockroach Species (Orthoptera: Blattellidae) Using Gas Chromatography

Authors

D. A. Carlson, USDA-ARS, Insects Affecting Man and Animals Research Laboratory, Gainesville, Florida 32604
R. J. Brenner, USDA-ARS, Insects Affecting Man and Animals Research Laboratory, Gainesville, Florida 32604

Date of this Version

1988

Comments

Published in Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 81(5): 711-723 (1988).

Abstract

The identification of various life stages of three species of cockroaches was accomplished by using gas chromatography for the quantitative determination of cuticular hydrocarbon components. Dried and frozen specimens of wild and laboratory samples of the closely related species, Blattella asahinai Mizukubo and B. germanica (L.), were identified by inspection of chromatographic data. The cuticular hydrocarbons of each species were identified by mass spectrometry and found to be quite unlike those of the distantly related B. vaga Hebard. A statistical technique is described that provides a quantitative approach to numerical pattern recognition of chromatograms for identifying Asian and German cockroaches. In an experiment conducted to evaluate the operational efficiency of this technique for species identification, 63 blind samples of whole cockroaches (37), oothecae (6), and legs, wings, or cast skins (20) from German-like cockroaches including hybrids, were successfully identified.