Extraordinary ecological behavior in egg-laying of the wood-feeding cockroach Cryptocercus

One of the most important insect behaviors is egg-laying, which characterizes how each species maintains its lineage. Most cockroaches, before laying eggs, they dug a cradle first and then put eggs in it. However, the wood-eating cockroach Cryptocercus, termites' closest relatives, did the opposite. Previous observations have shown that they laid eggs before digging a cradle for eggs. In this study, we hypothesized the difference and set up experiments to demonstrate that the Cryptocercus females would dig a cradle after dropping the ootheca, as opposed to before and the mother will prefer to dig the cradle close by to the ootheca, as opposed to further away. In addition to these hypotheses, we also aim to develop a protocol for semi-automated analysis of wood-feeding patterns derived from photographs.The experimental results obtained will be analyzed and discussed, they are important biological data that lead us to insights to shape future research directions on this particular cockroach species.