Download Cockroaches: Ecology, Behavior, and Natural History. William J. Bell

Book Reviews
Cuvier, and Jean-Marie Daubenton. The teeth and
bones were huge and unquestionably real, but
what kind of animal did they represent? To some,
the heavy “grinders” indicated carnivory; to others,
browsing habits. Was it a huge hippopotamus or a
distant American cousin of the Siberian mammoth?
And what did the animal look like? Resolution was
frustrated by the fact that the bones were scattered,
and no articulated skeletons were recovered. Further,
the discovery of different but elephant like teeth
indicated that a second huge incognitum was represented in Big Bone Lick collections. Which bones
belonged to what animal? These obstacles were
overcome by Cuvier in 1806, whose reconstruction depicted a unique, elephant like animal.
The incognitum thus became Mammut americanum,
the American mastodon. And the second incognitum
is now known as the Columbian mammoth, or
Mammuthus columbi.
The giant bones were mute, but they posed
philosophical alternatives, which at the time were
acute and unresolved. The Creator was understood to
be perfect and eternal. As a consequence, must all of
creation also be perfect and therefore changeless? If
the incognitum were to be found somewhere, alive, the
perfection of creation would be supported. If not, then
nature incorporated change, and the scope of creation
would be deepened in an unprecedented manner. It
would be as if the night sky were to be transformed
from a vaulted surface to fields of island universes
(galaxies) that diminish into cosmic dimensions of
space and time. Cuvier demonstrated that no mastodon had yet been seen alive. Jefferson launched the
Lewis and Clark Expedition (1804–1806), requesting
that, in addition to its other objectives it determine
whether or not living mastodons could be found in
the remote outback of the Louisiana Purchase (1803).
The rest is history.
Collecting has since continued at the site. However,
its prominence was eclipsed by the rapid expansion
of the earth sciences during the 19th and 20th
centuries, which has been well chronicled elsewhere.
Thus, scientists were soon to be shocked by the
discovery of bones of giant reptiles. The “Age
of Mastodons” was thus preceded an antediluvian
“Age of Reptiles.” Dinosaur bones were unearthed in
Cockroaches: Ecology, Behavior, and
Natural History. William J. Bell, Louis M.
Roth, and Christine A. Nalepa.
Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007.
248 pp. ISBN-0-8018-8616-3 (hardcover), $100.00.
541
Western Europe and along the Atlantic seaboard of
the former British colonies in America. Later in the
century, fossil collectors followed the Union Pacific
Railroad (completed in 1869) through the Wild
West, collecting spectacular skeletons as they went.
The United States Geological Survey was established
(1879) to inventory the lands of the former Louisiana
Purchase. Time had bypassed the Big Bone Lick, and
the dispersal and loss of historical collections made
from the Lick had left no imposing monument to
its former glory. Like a poetic description of the
works of Ozymandias, the “birthplace of American
Paleontology” and the “site that brought species
extinction to the attention of the world” was all but
forgotten in the beautiful wooded hills of northern
Kentucky.
Ozymandius, Percy Bysshe Shelley, 1818
I met a traveler from an antique land
Who said: Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shatter’d visage lies, whose frown
And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamp’ed on these lifeless
things,
The hand that mock’d them and the heart that
fed.
And on the pedestal these words appear:
“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty and despair!”
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
We owe a debt of gratitude to Hedeen for inviting
us to revisit this special moment in the history
of science. Specialists and interested amateurs will
surely enjoy his book.
Dale A. Russell
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences,
Raleigh, NC 27601
E-mail: [email protected]
Advance Access publication July 15, 2008
doi:10.1093/icb/icn073
Mention cockroaches and there is a near universal
negative reaction, usually associated with unhygienic
conditions, disease, and general disgust. This is
understandable because most people (including
many biologists who do not study cockroaches) are
542
generally familiar with just a handful of “pest”
cockroach species that have become associated with
human habitation. Few people realize the extent of
cockroach diversity in life history, habitat, behavior,
and morphology. Few books exist on the ecology,
life history, and biology of cockroaches other
than those that are closely associated with humans.
This book attempts to summarize the large amount
of information that has accumulated in disparate
scientific journals on a wide variety of cockroach
species. The emphasis of the book in general is on
the less familiar species, many of which live in
forests, and therefore, are rarely encountered by
humans.
The book consists of 10 chapters and begins with a
general description of cockroach morphology.
Although cockroaches vary widely in their physical
appearance, they share a number of morphological
features in common. A number of fascinating features
have evolved over the millennia: horn-like protrusions
on the pronotum, exquisite mimicry of a variety of
beetle species, bright coloration, and sexual dimorphism. The second chapter deals with locomotion.
Cockroaches, especially the peridomestic species, are
best known for their fast running. However, there is a
great deal of variability in cockroach locomotion
including swimming and flying. Although many
cockroach species are wingless, some species are
strong fliers and sexual dimorphism in presence/
absence of wings is not uncommon. This chapter
includes detailed information on the ecological
correlates of wing condition, life history trade-offs,
population structure, correlation between wings and
habitat, as well as other evolutionary aspects.
Cockroaches occupy a wide variety of habitats
(Chapter 3) including tropical and temperate forests,
deserts, grasslands, and salt marshes. Similarly, they
have a wide vertical distribution ranging from tropical
rain forest canopies to deep in the soil. The broad
habitat is reflected in a number of features such as diet
and foraging (Chapter 4), morphology, physiology,
reproduction, diet, circadian rhythms, and seasonal
activity.
One of the more fascinating aspects of cockroach
biology is their association with microbial symbionts
(Chapter 5). Cockroaches harbor a wide variety of
symbionts in their gut as well as fat bodies. It is widely
believed that the association with microbes has played
a large role in the adaptation and evolution of
cockroaches, as it has in many other organisms. The
hindguts of all cockroaches that have been examined
harbor a wide variety of microbes, including ciliates,
amoebae, flagellates, and various prokaryotes.
These are believed to play a major role in digestion.
Book Reviews
With the exception of one genus (Nocticola) all
cockroaches examined to date also harbor endosymbiotic bacteria in the genus Blattabacterium, which
are believed to have an essential role in uric acid
metabolism. In addition, some cockroaches (e.g.,
Cryptocercus) also harbor specialized microbes such
as those involved in the breakdown of lignocellulose.
Cockroaches exhibit a wide variety of fascinating
mating strategies and behaviors (Chapter 6), although
only a few species have been studied in detail. Like
most other insects, cockroaches communicate using
chemicals; however, a number of other signals such as
visual, tactile, and acoustic may be involved in
courtship and mate finding.
Chapter 7 is a detailed description of the wide
variety of reproductive strategies exhibited by cockroaches. Cockroaches produce and deposit oothecae,
which are egg cases containing multiple embryos.
Cockroaches also exhibit a range of reproductive
modes, including oviparity ovoviviparity, viviparity,
and parthenogenesis.
Another fascinating aspect of cockroach biology is
their social behavior (Chapter 8). A majority of
cockroach species are solitary; however, a number of
them are gregarious or subsocial. It is widely believed
that eusocial termites evolved from subsocial cockroaches (Chapter 9), a finding that is important to the
understanding of termite evolution. Parental care is
also often exhibited by cockroaches and is reflected to
some extent by ovoviviparity and viviparity. Chapter 9
examines the similarities between termites and
cockroaches and attempts to make the case that the
former evolved from the latter.
The final chapter is an examination of the
ecological impact of cockroaches. This is perhaps
one of the more under-investigated aspects of
cockroaches. Cockroaches are an important source
of food for a number of organisms, including
arthropods, birds, and mammals. As such, they are
an important part of the food chain. Cockroaches also
play an extremely important role in nutrient cycling.
A majority of cockroaches are detritus feeders and
with the help of endogenous cellulases play an
important role in degrading plant material. Some
species, such as Cryptocercus, feed directly on wood
and play a major role in lignocellulose digestion in
temperate forests. This book concludes with an appendix of taxonomic designations of genera discussed
in the book and a glossary of terms.
Overall, this is a well-written book that is also
visually attractive. The figures (line drawings and black
and white photographs) are clear and relevant. It is
indeed tragic that two of the authors and foremost
experts on cockroaches (Roth and Bell) passed away
Book Reviews
543
before the completion of the book and did not have
an opportunity to see the end product. This book is
much needed to educate biologists about the fascinating biology and diversity of cockroaches. It is perhaps a
little too technical for the general public, but anyone
with a background in science is likely to comprehend
most of the information here. My one criticism is
that a number of recent and relevant references have
been left out. Beyond that I think this book should
be read by anyone interested in cockroach diversity
and evolution. I especially recommend this book to
graduate students so they can perhaps realize the
myriad opportunities and unanswered questions that
exist in the study of cockroach biology and evolution.
Foraging: Behavior and Ecology. David W.
Stephens, Joel S. Brown, and Ronald C.
Ydenberg, editors.
reserves), and the extension of foraging into the realm
of “foraging games and the consequences of foraging as
a group.” We reviewed the book keeping the
“hypothetical graduate student” in mind, and we
asked if the book provides enough depth of coverage
of the new concepts emerging in the field to be useful
to her in choosing a research topic, while at the same
time providing enough background to give her an
overview of the scope and history of the field. Finally,
we evaluated the claim that “empirical, modeling,
mathematical, and computational advances” are
advancing in “lockstep.”
The book clearly demonstrates that foraging studies
have grown and evolved in the past 20 years and much
of this growth has occurred at the interface between
behavioral ecology and other disciplines. For example,
Whelan and Schmidt (Chapter 5) show how optimization models have helped physiologists understand
digestion, and they argue convincingly that postingestive processes, ignored in early foraging models,
can have a strong influence on foraging decisions such
as diet selection and feeding rate. Similarly, physiological constraints and optimization techniques have been
combined to provide new insights into herbivory
(Chapter 6), energy storage (Chapter 7), and provisioning (Chapter 8). Brodin and Clark (Chapter 7) use
state-variable models combined with dynamic optimization methods to show how animals might balance
the “delicate trade-off between predation and
starvation” when making foraging decisions and to
yield insights into problems as varied as hoarding
behavior, fat storage, and daily time budgets, all
behaviors in which current actions influence future
options.
Cognitive constraints as well as physiological ones
clearly have an impact on foraging behavior. Chapter 2
by Stevens presents a useful review of signal detection
and related theories and provides a good overview
of how information processing influences foraging
Chicago, IL: The University of Chicago Press, 2007. 576 pp.
ISBN 0-226-77263-2 (cloth), $99.00 and 0-226-77264-0
(paper), $45.00.
Naturalists and scientists have for centuries observed
and recorded many details of what, when, and where
species eat, but the first conceptual framework for a
theory of foraging by wild animals did not begin to
emerge until the late 1960s with the seminal paper of
MacArthur and Pianka (1966). These authors suggested that foraging behavior evolved to maximize
individual fitness subject to constraints and, in this
sense, animals may forage optimally. Interest in
foraging theory exploded in the 1970s as experimental
studies of foraging supported many of the predictions
of the early models. A number of reviews and books
(e.g. Pyke et al. 1977; Stephens and Krebs 1986) in the
late 1970s and 1980s summarized the first two decades
of foraging studies and gave generally upbeat assessments of the state of the growing theoretical and
empirical foraging enterprise.
The recent book Foraging Behavior and Ecology
edited by Stephens, Brown, and Ydenberg (2007) takes
the book by Stephens and Krebs (1986) as a starting
point and asks what has happened in foraging
studies in the past 20 or so years. One stated aim of
this book is to provide guidance to “a hypothetical
graduate student at the beginning of her career.”
The authors contend that “the last two decades
of foraging studies have seen a pleasing lockstep
among empirical, modeling, mathematical, and computational advances.” Furthermore, they contend that
many “new concepts have emerged” including the
realization that “foragers must balance food and
safety,” “state dependence” (i.e. the idea that tactical
foraging decisions depend on state variables such as fat
Srini Kambhampati
Department of Entomology
Kansas State University
E-mail: [email protected]
Advance Access publication July 19, 2008
doi:10.1093/icb/icn074