Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 61 (2017) 114–122 REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE Entomologia A Journal on Insect Diversity and Evolution www.rbentomologia.com Biology, Ecology and Diversity Distribution, habitat use and plant associations of Moluchia brevipennis (Saussure, 1864) (Blattodea: Ectobiidae): an endemic cockroach from Chilean Mediterranean Matorral biome a,∗ b c a Constanza Schapheer , Margarita M. Lopez-Uribe , Alejandro Vera , Cristian A. Villagra a Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Instituto de Entomología, Santiago, Chile b University Park, Pennsylvania State University, Department of Entomology, United States c Universidad Metropolitana de Ciencias de la Educación, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Departamento de Biología, Santiago, Chile a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f o Article history: Wild cockroaches are often described as abundant and diverse insects from wet tropical zones; however, Received 10 October 2016 they can also be found in arid and semiarid areas. It is proposed that in these drier environments cockroach Received in revised form 27 January 2017 survival may dependent on its tight association with native plant species. In this work, using bait trapping Accepted 1 February 2017 and active collection methods, we surveyed cockroach species along central Chile coastal scrubland; the Available online 17 February 2017 ◦ southern limit of the semiarid Mediterranean Matorral biome in the Neotropical Region (32 S). Based Associate Editor: Gustavo Graciolli on morphological and DNA barcoding methods we found that our collected cockroaches belonged to native species Moluchia brevipennis (Saussure, 1864) (Blattodea: Ectobiidae). Furthermore, thanks to field Keywords: sampling, we noticed for the first time that M. brevipennis predominantly can be found in patches of Larcenists native vegetation from Matorral biome, for instance, associated to endemic plant species from Puya Habitat fragmentation (Bromeliaceae) genus, where we recorded these wild cockroaches feeding on flowers at dusk. Under the Ecological interactions South American cockroaches light of these findings, we discuss the relevance of the association between M. brevipennis and native plants for its survival in this semiarid habitat, its potential ecological function and the ongoing hazards for native insect species resulting from nearby urban sprawl in coastal central Chile. © 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Entomologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). Introduction and even pollinators (Nagamitsu and Inoue, 1997; Vlasáková et al., 2008). Despite being popularly recognized as household pests, less The distribution of wild cockroaches is mainly restricted to nat- than 1% of all described cockroach species are adapted to human- ural areas in tropical regions of the globe. For instance, in South dominated habitats. Pest or domestic cockroaches are capable America most records for wild species are from Brazil (Albuquerque of colonizing human habitat and can become a health con- and Lopes, 1976; Pellens and Grandcolas, 2008) and Guiana Shield cern as well as an urban nuisance (Rivault et al., 1993; World (Grandcolas, 1994a,b; Evangelista et al., 2015). Among the expla- Health Organization, 1999). By the contrary, the remaining known nations for this constraint distribution is that cockroaches exhibit cockroach species are commonly not associated with urbanized intolerance to low humidity and extreme temperatures, which environments, as they live in diverse natural ecosystems, where also restricts the number of potential habitats for these insects these insects play key ecological roles (Roth and Willis, 1960; Bell to the equatorial regions (Bell et al., 2007). Despite this gen- et al., 2007). For instance, besides of its contribution with nutrient eral pattern, there are formidable exceptions of wild cockroaches cycling and organic matter turnover (Irmer and Furch, 1979; Geng found in dry environments such as genus Arenivaga (Corydiidae) and Côté, 2002; Tarli et al., 2014), wild cockroaches play important inhabiting sand dunes in California (Hawke and Farley, 1973), ecological roles as detritivores (Tarli et al., 2014; Mullins, 2015), Heterogamisca chopardi Uvarov, 1936 (Corydiidae) (Grandcolas, florivores (Ball et al., 1942), xylophagous (Pellens et al., 2002), 1995) and Polyphaga aegyptiaca (Corydiidae) from Saudi-Arabia desert (Grandcolas, 1996) Moreover, wild cockroaches can also inhabit temperate environments, as it is the case of Epilampra hualpensis (Blaberidae) (Uribe, 1977) and Moluchia strigata (Ecto- ∗ biidae), endemic species from Mediterranean-type sclerophyllous Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected] (C. Schapheer). forest in central Chile (Villagra and Schapheer, 2016). In these http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rbe.2017.02.001 0085-5626/© 2017 Sociedade Brasileira de Entomologia. Published by Elsevier Editora Ltda. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). C. Schapheer et al. / Revista Brasileira de Entomologia 61 (2017) 114–122 115 Table 1 last-mentioned cases, roaches were found in association with Large-scale distribution data of Moluchia brevipennis. endemic Bromeliad litter (Uribe, 1977; Villagra and Schapheer, 2016). Site Geographical Data type M. coordinates brevipennis Considering these examples of habitat use by non-tropical presence species, it is possible to suggest that wild cockroaches’ distribu- ◦ tion and its ecological associations may be underrepresented in Cachagua 32 34 36.56 S FC Yes 71◦2709.79 W current literature; currently, we made a search for scientific arti- ® ◦ Los Molles 32 14 09.92 S FC Yes cles in Google Scholar using keywords; cockroach, Blattodea or 71◦3130.55 W ◦ Blattaria, between years 2000 and 2016 (n = 500 papers), and dis- Zapallar 32 33 08.88 S FC Yes ◦ covered that only 36% (178 papers) corresponded to studies on 71 28 07.95 W ◦ Los Molles 32 14 07.39 S FC Yes wild cockroaches. Furthermore, from that fraction no more than 71◦3040.85 W 7% (13 papers) were focused on the ecological associations or dis- ◦ Los Molles 33 22 51.24 S FC Yes tribution of native species. Despite this scarcity of non-tropical 71◦1411.46 W ◦ cockroaches studied, these evidences may illustrate the coloniza- Cuesta Zapata 32 08 01.57 S FC Yes ◦ tion patterns of subtropical and temperate regions of the world by 71 32 01.48 W ◦ Pichidangui 32 30 16.00 S FC Yes Blattodea. Thus, this kind of work is quite valuable and efforts con- 71◦2808.73 W centrated in surveying for new species in non-tropical regions as ◦ Cementerio 32 33 08.88 S FC Yes ◦ well as disentangling its ecological interaction are paramount in Papudo 71 28 07.95 W ◦ order to understand the ecological and evolutionary dynamics of Los Lilenes 33 22 03.10 S FC Yes 71◦4017.60 W these insects (Caesar et al., 2015). ◦ Papudo Centro 33 19 20.52 S FC Yes South America temperate regions such as central Chile are suit- 71◦3900.29 W able candidate spots for these explorations, as these latitudes have ◦ Mirasol 33 26 23.56 S FC Yes ◦ been scarcely explored for native cockroach species. Regarding 71 39 05.23 W ◦ cockroaches in Chile, the most recent species description was made Punta Lobos 31 54 53 S EC MCCN Yes 71◦3103 W in the seventies (Uribe, 1977), and the latest revision on this order ◦ Playa de Nague˜ 31 55 S EC IEUMCE Yes was published in the same decade (Moroni and Camousseight, 71◦31 W 1976). To date, thirteen endemic and five introduced cockroach ◦ Quintay 33 11 30.1 S FC Yes ◦ species have been reported for Chile (see Appendix A; Moroni and 71 41 52.3 W ◦ Valparaíso 33 01 11.5 S FC No Camousseight, 1976; Artigas, 1994; Camousseight, 2008a,b). 71◦3818.0 W With respect to its distribution, while pest species have been ◦ Vina˜ del Mar 33 00 14.7 S FC No reported in urban centers and commercial ports in central Chile 71◦3300.3 W ◦ (Schapheer et al., 2016), Chilean wild cockroaches have been Concon 32 55 19.4 S FC No ◦ reported in areas with native plant communities along inner val- 71 31 25.8 W ◦ Pullally 32 23 27.4 S FC No leys of this region (Villagra and Schapheer, 2016). However, so 71◦2431.6 W far, these insects have never been surveyed along the coastline ◦ Calera de Tango 33 38 10.3 S FC No of the Mediterranean scrubland type biome (Matorral) in cen- 70◦4616.7 W ◦ tral Chile. This unique biome sustains a rich community of xeric Pirque 33 40 56.7 S FC No ◦ and sclerophyllous autochthonous plant species, being considered 70 34 44.7 W ◦ San Sebastián 33 31 35.7 S FC No among world biodiversity hotspot, even despite of human-derived 71◦3607.4 W habitat degradation (Mittermeier et al., 2004; Wilson et al., 2007; ◦ Santo Domingo 33 38 07.7 S FC No ◦ Underwood et al., 2009; Schulz et al., 2010; Armesto et al., 2010). 71 38 07.5 W ◦ The aim of this work it is to study the distribution, habitat use Las Cruces 33 30 00.6 S FC No 71◦3803.9 W and possible associations of a wild cockroach species, Moluchia brevipennis (Saussure, 1864) (Ectobiidae), with native vegetation Abbreviations: FC, field collect; EC, entomological collection; MCCN, Museo Nacional de Historia Natural; IEUMCE, Colección Entomológica Instituto de Entomología. at a transitional zone between desertic and temperate environ- ments in Mediterranean Matorral of central Chile (Santibanez˜ et al., 2008). We sampled cockroaches in natural habitats and urban areas precipitation. Average humidity is consistently high around 75–80% through field surveys using two methods (onion baits and active due to sea mist, which maintains this humidity level throughout collecting). Species identification was achieved using a combina- almost the whole year along the coastline (Di Castri and Hajek, tion of morphological and molecular data.