The cockroach ventral nerve cord preparation is a tractable system for neuroethology experiments, neural network modeling, and testing the physiological effects of insecticides. This article describes the scope of cockroach sensory modalities that can be used to assay how an insect nervous system responds to environmental perturbations. Emphasis here is on the escape behavior mediated by cerci ...

Cellulase activity measured as filter paper digesting activity (FPase) and carboxymethyl cellulase (CMCase) was demonstrated in hindgut extracts of the cockroach Periplaneta americana. The highest activities measured amounted to 0.89 and 0.12 U . ml for CMCase and FPase, respectively. The cellulolytic capacity of the hindgut population increased dramatically when protozoa were present, and the ...

We examined the effects of aerodynamic forces on the mechanical power output of running insects for which kinematic data were available. Drag and lift on the cockroaches Periplaneta americana (a small, rapidly running species) and Blaberus discoidalis (a larger, more slowly moving species) were measured in a wind tunnel. Although lift would be expected to affect power output by altering functio...

BACKGROUND The present study was designed to investigate the insecticidal efficacy of four different classes of insecticides: pyrethroids, organophosphates, phenyl-pyrazoles and neo-nicotenoids. One representative chemical from each class was selected to compare the toxicity: deltamethrin from pyrethroids, Dichlorovinyl Dimethyl Phosphate (DDVP) from organophosphates, fipronil from phenyl-pyraz...

In insect photoreceptors, absorption of a photon by a visual pigment molecule triggers a cascade of biochemical reactions culminating in opening of cationic channels belonging to the TRP (transient receptor potential) superfamily (Hardie, 2014). Until recently, these light-activated channels were identified and studied exclusively in the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Its photoreceptors exp...

In order to study adequately the effects of insecticides upon the various tissues and functional processes of insects, particularly insects which it is desired to control, it is necessary to have more knowledge of the manner in which the tissues and organs of insects function under normal and abnormal conditions. This paper is a report of experiments which yielded further information regarding ...

Identifying cockroach (Order: Blattodea) populations is important to understanding the ability of surrogate species indirectly affecting humans by their ability to vector disease-causing organisms including bacteria. These interactions may have potentially deleterious health consequences on animal and/or human populations. In this study, American cockroaches, Periplaneta americana were sampled ...

background : cockroaches are found as the most common urban pests of tropical countries, prompting economic and serious health risk problem for humans by carrying microbes and allergens, acting as vector for various patho­gens of diseases. the present study was conducted from april 2013 to march 2014 in various human dwelling local­ities of urban area of district lahore, pakistan. methods : coc...

The corpora cardiaca of the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea contain a hypertrehalosaemic hormone (HTH) which is chemically characterized as a blocked decapeptide. The synthetic HTH shows the same chromatographic behaviour as the material isolated from corpora cardiaca. The synthetic peptide causes hypertrehalosaemia and fat body glycogen phosphorylase-activation in N. cinerea as well as in the Amer...