Ann. Entomol. Soc. Am. 81(3): 432-436 (1988) ABSTRACT The Asian cockroach, Blattella asahinai Mizukubo, a close relative of the German cockroach, B. germanica (L.), has been discovered in over 900 km from Tampa to Lakeland, Fla., and is prevalent in citrus groves, wooded areas, lawns, and homes. Differentiation of the two species is best accomplished by the diagnostic behavior of the Asian cock...

We describe here our design and implementation of a cyborg insect, called CameraRoach, with onboard camera feedback that can be navigated via remote control providing first-person view. The pack is mounted on the Madagascar hissing cockroach, which small enough to fit into crevices but also carry printed circuit boards power, communication, sensor components (visual camera). For navigating we i...

Insects are nature’s engineering marvels. They can perform marvellous feats such as jumping many times their own body length, lifting many times their own body weight, moving around even with multiple missing limbs and doing all this with amazing efficiency. It is little wonder then that roboticists have been attempting to replicate nature’s design feat in robots. The primary thrust in the area...

Natural hemagglutinin activity against vertebrate erythrocytes is present in the hemolymph of the cockroach Blabarus craniifer. The hemagglutinin titer against rabbit erythrocytes is high, whereas sheep and horse red cells agglutinate weakly. Hemagglutinin activity was depressed by the complement inhibitor, cobra venom factor. Cockroach hemagglutinin is heat-labile; all activity is destroyed by...

The fine structure of the tergo-coxal muscle of the cockroach, Leucophaea maderae, has been studied with the electron microscope. This muscle differs from some other types of insect flight muscles inasmuch as the ratio of thin to thick filaments is 4 instead of the characteristic 3. The cockroach flight muscle also differs from the cockroach femoral muscle in thin to thick filament ratios and d...

Cockroach infestations have been indicated as a major contributor to asthma throughout the world. Several studies have shown that large numbers of asthmatic patients are sensitized to cockroach allergens. Eliminating this pest from homes, schools, and public buildings involves a long-term commitment to a rational extermination process. This article covers the characteristics of the major cockro...

Hunger component is introduced to the existing cockroach swarm optimization (CSO) algorithm to improve its searching ability and population diversity. The original CSO was modelled with three components: chase-swarming, dispersion, and ruthless; additional hunger component which is modelled using partial differential equation (PDE) method is included in this paper. An improved cockroach swarm o...

BACKGROUND As a major source of indoor allergens, cockroach causes perennial rhinitis and asthma. Recently, cockroach feces were reported to contain TLR2 agonist, which could directly activate neutrophils to release cytokines. CpG oligodeoxynucleotide (ODN), a Toll-like receptor (TLR)9 activator was also found to induce proinflammatory cytokine release from mast cells. However, influence of spe...

We examined the diversity of a marker gene for homoacetogens in two cockroach gut microbial communities. Formyltetrahydrofolate synthetase (FTHFS or fhs) libraries prepared from a wood-feeding cockroach, Cryptocercus punctulatus, were dominated by sequences that affiliated with termite gut treponemes. No spirochete-like sequences were recovered from the omnivorous roach Periplaneta americana, w...

BACKGROUND Season of birth has been associated with the development of atopy and asthma. Relationships among a particular birth season, maternal allergen exposure during the birth season, and childhood development of allergies to allergens in higher concentration during the birth season may be important. OBJECTIVE To investigate the effects of winter birth (January 1 to March 31) and prenatal...