Hissing cockroaches recognize each other from hisses

Keith

Keith

Megaloblatta
I was reading that hissing cockroaches recognize one another by familiar hisses, like you and I recognize friends and family by how they sound. This also might prevent 2 males who already battled each other to get into another fight as they recognize one another and avoid conflict, and hissing sounds can also determine which male is stronger so that also prevents physical fighting unless they are evenly matched.

 
Article source please! I want to read too.

Makes sense, though, and such things aren't at all unknown in arthropods. Wasps and crayfish that differentiate between and remember other individuals' faces.

My males have never seemed to care who they fought. Maybe they just did it for fun sometimes. :P

 
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Seems sketchy. Zoo or not, they do not cite this claim and of the two links they offer the University of Kentucky site says nothing about recognition and doesn't cite what they do say, and Carolina Biological Supply makes you buy their kits and/or manuals (though my experience with their literature is that they do cite their sources).

So unless there's cited studies it's merely anecdotal.

For those who have more time and database access:

Nelson MC. 1980. Are subgenual organs ‘‘ears’’ for hissing cockroaches? Soc Neurosci Abstr 6:198.5.

Nelson MC, Fraser J. 1980. Sound production in the cockroach Gromphadorhina portentosa: evidence for communication by hissing. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 6:305–314.

Hartman HB, Roth LM. 1967. Stridulation by the cockroach Nauphoeta cinerea during courtship behavior. J Insect Physiol 13:579–586.

The papers are older, though a good database will list newer papers that cite them.

 
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