Parcoblatta zebra, the banded wood cockroach, is a species of Parcoblatta native to the United States.[2] It has dark transverse bands across the back of its abdomen.[3]
The male of the species has a distinctive specialization of its median segment, which has a heavy tuft of agglutinated (stuck together) hairs directed toward its head, and a low, hairy ridge across the segment in front of the tuft.[3] The specialization occurs only in one other Parcoblatta species, P. americana, but is "decidedly greater" in P. zebra.[3]
The male pronotum is elliptical, widest at the middle, and its back edge, sides, and all its angles are rounded.[2] Its tegmina are fully developed, and delicate in structure. The space between its compound eyes is about a third of the distance between its antennal sockets.[2]
Coloration of the male includes a dull yellow head, including its ocelli (simple eye spots), with a vertical "prout's brown" stripe from between the ocelli down to the middle of the clypeus at the bottom of the face[2][3] The disc of the pronotum (the plate behind the head) is a reddish-brown, its sides are a translucent yellow, and the back fourth is a darker brown.[2] The tegmina (outer forewings) are a transparent, brownish-yellow. Its underside and cerci (two rear appendages) are dark brown.[2] Its legs are yellow.[2] The base of each abdominal segment on its back has a dark band across it, while the rear half is pale.[2][3]
The female is larger and more robust than the male, although its somewhat tegmina are shorter, ending at the fifth abdominal segment, and it is incapable of sustained flight.[2] Its pronotum is widest near the base, and the back edge is slightly rounded.[2] The space between its compound eyes is much broader than in the male.[2]
Coloration of the female includes a yellow head, with a transverse brown bar between the antennae. The disc of its pronotum and its tegmina are both reddish-brown with transparent yellow sides.[2] Its legs, sides and middle of the underside of its abdomen, and the back half of each abdominal segment on its back are yellow.[2] The front half of its dorsal abdominal segments are dark, a transverse banding that is unique among females of the genus Parcoblatta.[2][3]
The species is known in Alabama, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Texas.[2] It may also occur in New Mexico.[4]
Specimens have been found in the cavity of a dead sweet gum tree, under a sign on a shortleaf pine, and beneath a log in a cypress swamp.[2][3]
Parcoblatta zebra, the banded wood cockroach, is a species of Parcoblatta native to the United States. It has dark transverse bands across the back of its abdomen.
