Cryptocercus


Cryptocercus is a genus of Dictyoptera and the sole member of its own family Cryptocercidae. Species are known as wood roaches or brown-hooded cockroaches. These roaches are subsocial, their young requiring considerable parental interaction. They also share wood-digesting gut bacteria types with wood-eating termites, and are therefore seen as evidence of a close genetic relationship, that termites are essentially evolved from social cockroaches.
Cryptocercus is especially notable for sharing numerous characteristics with termites, and phylogenetic studies have shown this genus is more closely related to termites than it is to other cockroaches. These two lineages probably shared a common ancestor in the early Cretaceous.

Species

Found in North America and Asia, there are 12 known species:Cryptocercus clevelandi Byers, 1997Cryptocercus darwini Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999Cryptocercus garciai Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999Cryptocercus hirtus Grandcolas, Bellés, 2005Cryptocercus kyebangensis Grandcolas, 2001Cryptocercus matilei Grandcolas, 2000Cryptocercus meridianus Grandcolas, Legendre, 2005Cryptocercus parvus Grandcolas, Park, 2005Cryptocercus primarius Bey-Bienko, 1938Cryptocercus punctulatus Scudder, 1862Cryptocercus relictus Bey-Bienko, 1935Cryptocercus wrighti Burnside, Smith, Kambhampati, 1999