Sexual behavior in the cockroach genera Periplaneta and Blatta. IV. Interspecific interactions.

As part of a study of sexual behavior in 6 species of closely related and often sympatric cockroaches, interspecific interactions among the various species were examined. To some degree males of nearly all species court females of a second species. Females almost always rejected these courtship attempts. Experimental evidence indicates that the volatile female sex pheromone of each species is attractive to males of most of the other species. Rejection of heterospecific males appears to be due to species specific male pheromones. These pheromones also appear to mediate the formation of homospecific clusters of courting males in time or space.