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On the Social Organisation, Alarm and Fighting in the Primitive Cockroach Cryptocercus punctulatus Scudder
Author(s) -
SEELINGER GÜNTER,
SEELINGER UTE
Publication year - 1983
Publication title -
zeitschrift für tierpsychologie
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.739
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1439-0310
pISSN - 0044-3573
DOI - 10.1111/j.1439-0310.1983.tb01347.x
Subject(s) - sociality , intraspecific competition , cockroach , alarm , biology , zoology , ecology , communication , psychology , engineering , aerospace engineering
The wood‐feeding cockroach Cryptocercus is usually believed to live in aggregations. Field observations, however, gave evidence for the existence of distinct family groups living in different gallery systems. This study investigates intraspecific behavioural interactions with respect to the social structure. The interactions among family members were observed in artificial burrows in the laboratory. Individuals from different families were brought together experimentally and the resulting alarm and fighting behaviour was studied. The importance of Cryptocercus for the evolution of termite sociality is discussed.