Wang Zongqing

• Professor
• Head of Department at College of Plant Protection,Southwest University, Chongqing, China

Blattidae Latreille is widely distributed worldwide and includes a variety of sanitary pests, such as Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus), Periplaneta australasiae (Fabricius) and Periplaneta fuliginosa (Serville). The subfamily composition of Blattidae has undergone significant changes in recent years, and a few long‐standing controversies have been...

In this paper knowledge of the genus Pycnoscelus Scudder, 1862 is updated. Two new species from southern China are described: Pycnoscelus puteus Wang & Che, sp. nov. and P. undulatus Wang & Che, sp. nov. Diagnostic characters and high-definition morphological photographs are provided for five known species and two species unidentified due to limite...

Subsociality and wood-eating or xylophagy are understood as key drivers in the evolution of eusociality in Blattodea (cockroaches and termites), two features observed in the cockroach genus Cryptocercus , the sister group of all termites. We present and analyse two new high-quality genomes from this genus, C. punctulatus from North America and C. m...

Termites are a lineage of social cockroaches abundant in tropical ecosystems where they are key decomposers of organic matter from wood to soil. Despite their ecological significance, only a handful of reference-quality termite genomes have been sequenced, which is insufficient to unravel the genetic mechanisms that have contributed to their ecolog...

Chlorophorus Chevrolat, 1863, one of the most species-rich genera of Clytini, comprises 36 subgenera and 302 species/subspecies, with some species being of significant economic importance. To assess the monophyly and subgeneric system of this genus, we newly obtained mitochondrial genomic data from 21 species of Chlorophorus via high-throughput seq...

Two new species of Eupolyphaga (E. bicolor Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov. and E. nigra Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov.) and six new species of Pseudoeupolyphaga (P. flava Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov., P. deficiens Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov., P. magna Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov., P. longiseta Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov., P. latizona Han, Che & Wang, sp. nov., and P. b...

In this study, specimens of Blattellidae collected in China in recent years are analyzed by combining molecular data and morphological characters, and four new species of Jacobsonina and Blattella are described, Jacobsonina plicata Yao & Che, sp. nov., Jacobsonina subapiculata Yao & Che, sp. nov., Jacobsonina ericonvexa Yao & Che, sp. nov., and Bla...

Six Margattea species are established and described: three are cryptic species, namely, M. parabisignata Li & Che, sp. nov. , M. semicircularis Li & Che, sp. nov. , and M. forcipata Li & Che, sp. nov. They are distinguished from known species M. bisignata , M. spinifera , and M. paratransversa by their male genitalia with the aid of molecular speci...

We examined new Allacta materials from Yunnan and Hainan Province, China, and discovered new species using both morphological and molecular species delimitation (ABGD) methods. Five new species are described: A. bifolium Li & Wang, sp. nov. , A. hemiptera Li & Wang, sp. nov. , A. lunulara Li & Wang, sp. nov. , A. redacta Li & Wang, sp. nov. , and A...

This study examines Blattinae samples from Southwest China collected in recent years. Based on morphological characters, we establish two genera, Vittiblatta gen. nov. and Planiblatta gen. nov., and describe four new species, Vittiblatta punctata Luo & Wang, sp. nov., Vittiblatta ferruginea Luo & Wang, sp. nov., Vittiblatta undulata Luo & Wang, sp....

Representatives of the cockroach superfamily Corydioidea are less sampled than members of the two other cockroach superfamilies (Blaberoidea and Blattoidea) due to the difficulty of collecting them in the field, accentuated by a general lack of knowledge on their biology. Their evolutionary relationships have not yet been investigated with a releva...

Adipokinetic hormone (AKH) is a neuropeptide produced in the insect corpora cardiaca that plays an essential role in mobilising carbohydrates and lipids from the fat body to the haemolymph. AKH acts by binding to a rhodopsin-like G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), the adipokinetic hormone receptor (AKHR). In this study, we tackle AKH ligand and rec...

Three new Scalida species from Yunnan are reported: Scalida hamata Qiao & Che sp. nov., Scalida spinosa Qiao & Che sp. nov., Scalida ramiformis Qiao & Che sp. nov.. Morphological descriptions of the new species, including the male genitalia, are provided along with detailed photographs. A list and a key to species of Scalida in the world are provid...

The superfamily Blaberoidea is a highly species-rich group of cockroaches. High-level blaberoidean phylogenetics are still under debate owing to variable taxon sampling and incongruence between mitochondrial and nuclear evolution, as well as different methods used in various phylogenetic studies. We here present a phylogenetic analysis of Blaberoid...

Cockroaches, an ancient and diverse group of insects on earth that originated in the Carboniferous, displays a wide array of morphology or biology diversity. The spermatheca is an organ of the insect reproductive system; the diversity of spermathecae might be the adaption to different mating and sperm storage strategies. Yet a consensus about the p...

The blattid cockroach Periplaneta arabica (Bey-Bienko, 1938) has been poorly understood since its original description. In this study, male and female (including nymph) of P. arabica are paired using DNA barcoding, and their morphological characters (including both external characteristics and genitalia) are described. A detailed comparative morpho...

Interspecific genetic divergence of distances calculated by K2P model method using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences in MEGA

Genetic divergence of distances calculated by K2P model method using cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (COI) gene sequences in MEGA

Cockroaches are an ecologically and economically important insect group, but some fundamental aspects of their evolutionary history remain unresolved. In particular, there are outstanding questions about some of the deeper relationships among cockroach families. As a group transferred from Blaberoidea Saussure to Blattoidea Latreille, the evolution...

Based on morphological characteristics, including male and female genitalia, combined with DNA barcodes, two new species, Anaplecta circinalis Deng & Che, sp. nov. and Anaplecta bihamata Deng & Che, sp. nov. , are described in detail. Additional information on the female genitalia of Anaplecta furcata Deng & Che, 2020 is also provided. Photographs...

Eupolyphaga Chopard, 1929 is a cockroach genus mainly endemic to China. In this study, the species diversity of this genus is further explored through morphology and molecular analysis. Four species are described new to science: Eupolyphaga miracidia Qiu, sp. nov. , Eupolyphaga udenostyla Qiu, sp. nov. , Eupolyphaga reducta Qiu, sp. nov. , and Eupo...

Members of the morphologically and ecologically diverse Blattellidae provide a dilemma: their systematic assignment, whether morphologically similar or different, is uncertain. We pay special attention to several taxa: the morphologically similar Episymploce Bey-Bienko, 1950 and Symploce Hebard, 1916, which were strongly disputed because of their e...

One new species of Bundoksia Lucañas, 2021 from China is described. We construct a haplotype network from 21 COI sequences to display the relationships amongst populations of Bundoksia longissima sp. nov. , mainly from Hainan Island, Yunnan Province and Guangxi Province, China. For the first time, we provide the details of female genitalia in addit...

Morphological characteristics, including male and female genitalia, combined with DNA barcodes were used to identify 470 Anaplecta specimens sampled from China. Ten Anaplecta species are new to science, including three cryptic species: A. paraomei Zhu & Che, sp. nov. , A. condensa Zhu & Che, sp. nov. , and A. longihamata Zhu & Che, sp. nov. , which...

Bait formulations are widely used for controlling the German cockroach, but cockroaches increasingly come into aversion and resistance to bait formulations. To optimize baits and delay insecticides resistance to Blattella germanica, five insecticides with different mechanisms of action were selected to test the stomach toxicity of B. germanica, and...

Cryptocercus Scudder, a genus of wingless, subsocial cockroaches, has low vagility but exhibits a disjunct distribution in eastern and western North America, and in China, South Korea and the Russian Far East. This distribution provides an ideal model for testing hypotheses of vicariance through plate tectonics or other natural barriers versus tran...

Nearly 450 Margattea specimens were collected from 27 locations in China and their morphology was examined. Then 68 Margattea COI sequences were obtained and used to carry out phylogenetic analyses as well as species delimitation analyses using General Mixed Yule Coalescent (GMYC), Automatic Barcode Gap Discovery (ABGD), and Poisson Tree Processes...

The genus Cyrtonotula Uvarov, 1939 (Blaberidae, Epilamprinae) is recorded for the first time from Hainan Island, China. Three new species, Cyrtonotula epunctata Wang & Wang, sp. nov. , C. maculosa Wang & Wang, sp. nov. , and C. longialata Wang & Wang, sp. nov. , are described based on morphological data and a molecular analysis using Automatic Barc...

The evolution of biological complexity is associated with the emergence of bespoke immune systems that maintain and protect organism integrity. Unlike the well-studied immune systems of cells and individuals, little is known about the origins of immunity during the transition to eusociality, a major evolutionary transition comparable to the evoluti...

This study utilized six genes ( 12S , 16S , 18S , 28S , COII and H3 ) from a total of 40 samples to construct maximum likelihood (ML) and Bayesian inference (BI) phylogenetic trees in order to infer the relationships between the morphologically similar genera Homalosilpha Stål, 1874 and Mimosilpha Bey-Bienko, 1957. The phylogenetic analysis showed...

The second Asian Holocompsa species, Holocompsa zhangi n. sp., is reported from Yunnan, China. This new species can be easily distinguished from Holocompsa debilis Walker, 1868, the only previously known Asian species, by the yellowish color on tegmina, the shape of wings, supra-anal plate, subgenital plate, and the detailed structures of the male...

In this study, we examine 500 specimens of Anaplecta collected from China, of which 26 samples were used for COI sequencing. We confirm eight new species, i.e., Anaplecta corneola Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta staminiformis Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta arcuata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta strigata Deng & Che sp. nov., Anaplecta furcata Deng &...

The evolutionary processes that drive variation in genome size across the tree of life remain unresolved. Effective population size (Ne) is thought to play an important role in shaping genome size [1, 2, 3]—a key example being the reduced genomes of insect endosymbionts, which undergo population bottlenecks during transmission [4]. However, the exi...

The evolution of biological complexity is associated with the emergence of bespoke immune systems that maintain and protect organism integrity. Unlike the well studied immunity at the cell and individual level, little is known about the origins of immunity during the transition to eusociality，a major evolutionary transition comparable to the evolut...

Cockroaches are one of the major decomposers involved in biogeochemical cycles. Cockroaches have an amazing amount of diversity, but most of them remain unknown due to the shortage of the trained taxonomists and the limitations of morphology-based identification. We obtained 49 COI sequences (including 42 novel sequences) and 32 novel 28S sequences...

Bacterial endosymbionts evolve under strong host-driven selection. Factors influencing host evolution might affect symbionts in similar ways, potentially leading to correlations between the molecular evolutionary rates of hosts and symbionts. Although there is evidence of rate correlations between mitochondrial and nuclear genes, similar investigat...

Cretaperiplaneta kaonashi Qiu, Che et Wang, gen. et sp. nov. (Blattodea: Blattidae) is described from mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber. This new cockroach resembles the extant genus Periplaneta, with wide apart eyes, smooth pronotum that wider than long, complex venation in tegmina, long but sparse spines on hind margins of femora, tarsomeres with spin...

A new genus and species, Minpolyphaga inexpectata gen. & sp. nov. is described based on material collected from Zhangzhou City, Fujian Province, southeast China. Minpolyphaga inexpectata gen. & sp. nov. exhibits uniform colouration in the male, and a small-sized body in both sexes (13.7‒15.8 mm in males, 12.8‒13.5 mm in females), making it the smal...

Cryptocercus cockroaches are remarkable for their similarity in external morphology while having a diversity in chromosome numbers. Most species are therefore delimited by karyotyping combined with phylogenetics. However, the investigation of chromosome diversity within a limited region is not well-studied, and the causes of their geographic distri...

A new Latindiinae, Brachylatindia xui gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated from Tibet, China. The new genus Beybienkonus gen. nov. is established to include Beybienkonus acuticercus (Bey-Bienko, 1957), comb. nov. The Asian Latindiinae is discussed with a total of six genera included. A checklist of Asian species and a key to the Asian gen...

Blattulidae is an extinct cockroach family which was widely distributed around the world and lasted from Late Triassic to Cretaceous. Here we describe and illustrate the first blattulid genus found in the mid-Cretaceous Burmese amber, Huablattula gen. nov., to accommodate two new species, Huablattula hui sp. nov. and Huablattula jiewenae sp. nov. M...

Cryptocercus Scudder is a genus of wingless cockroaches, which spend their lives feeding within rotting wood in old‐growth montane forests. Their dispersal capability is likely to be limited because they depend on the succession of temperate forests, but their distribution exhibits intercontinental disjunctions. Although the natural history and con...

Laevifaciesquadrialatagen. et sp. nov. is described from Hainan Province, China based on morphological data. COI data (DNA barcodes) is utilized to confirm the sexual dimorphism occurring in Laevifaciesquadrialatagen. et sp. nov.Melanozosterianitida Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1865, is reported from Guangxi Province, China. A key to the Chinese Polyzost...

This study examined 504 Rhabdoblatta specimens sampled from China, of which, 86 Rhabdoblatta specimens were used for COI sequencing. A phylogenetic analysis using the ML method and MOTUs estimations by ABGD and GMYC based on COI sequences was performed. Eighteen Rhabdoblatta species were identified when these data were combined with morphological d...

This article presents the diversity of cockroach family Corydiidae from China. Epipolyphaga wukong Qiu, Che et Wang, n. gen., n. sp., is described. Habitus and detailed characters of the new taxa are illustrated. A comparison between the new genus and the morphologically similar genus Eupolyphaga Chopard is given. The genus Tivia Walker and the spe...

Two new species, Allactabrunasp. n. and Allactaalbasp. n., from China are described and illustrated. Allactahainanensis (Liu et al., 2017), comb. n. is proposed and re-described; figures including genitalia are provided. A key is provided to all species from China based on males. Notes on the bionomics of this genus in China are provided.

A new corydiid cockroach, Magniocula apiculata gen. et sp. nov., is described and illustrated based on a well-preserved specimen in Upper Cretaceous Burmese amber. Magniocula is placed in the extant subfamily Euthyrrhaphinae based on the small pubescent body, large clypeus surpassing the distal border of the antennal sockets, and two spines at apex...

Bacterial endosymbionts evolve under strong host-driven selection. Factors influencing host evolution might affect symbionts in similar ways, potentially leading to correlations between the molecular evolutionary rates of hosts and symbionts. Although there is evidence of rate correlations between mitochondrial and nuclear genes, similar investigat...

The Comstock–Needham system, the foundation of main vein homology of insects, is grounded in the comparison between wing venation and wing-pad tracheation, particularly that of Plecoptera and Blattodea. However, the trachea-based approach has come into great dispute in recent years. Meanwhile, the terminology used to describe the wing venation of c...

The cockroach genus Eupolyphaga is revised. Twenty species and two subspecies are recognized, with thirteen species and two subspecies are new to science: E. daweishana sp. nov., E. dongi sp. nov., E. fengi sp. nov., E. hanae sp. nov., E. hupingensis sp. nov., E. maculata sp. nov., E. nigrifera sp. nov., E. nigrinotum sp. nov., E. pilosa sp. nov.,...

Brephallus Wang et al., gen. n. is established as a genus distinct from Pseudophoraspis Kirby, 1903 because of the lack of a well-developed apical outgrowth on sclerite L2D and substantial genetic differences. Two species are transferred to the new genus from Pseudophoraspis , i.e., Brephallusfruhstorferi (Shelford, 1910), comb. n. and Brephallustr...

New findings on Chinese Corydiinae are presented and new taxa are described and illustrated: Ctenoblatta impubis gen. and sp. nov., Minicorydia maoxiana gen. and sp. nov. and Ergaula nepalensis (Saussure) is newly recorded from China. The occurrence of two species of Polyphaga Brullé, P. plancyi Bolívar and P. obscura Chopard, in China are confirme...

The taxonomic records of Chinese perisphaerine cockroaches were scattered in literature, and therefore a dedicated study is desired to update our knowledge. This paper reviews the subfamilial diagnosis and Chinese species, mostly from southwestern China. We provide high-definition habitus photos and drawings, the latter emphasizes the genitalia of...

Most cockroaches produce a special capsular structure, the ootheca, to enclose eggs for protection and maternal brood care. However, the origin and early evolution of the cockroach ootheca is poorly known, attributable to a lack of fossil evidence from the Mesozoic. Here, we report the earliest known cockroach fossil possessing an internally partit...

Following the acceptance of plate tectonics theory in the latter half of the 20th century, vicariance became the dominant explanation for the distributions of many plant and animal groups. In recent years, however, molecular-clock analyses have challenged a number of well-accepted hypotheses of vicariance. As a widespread group of insects with a fo...

Woodroaches from the genus Cryptocercus Scudder, 1862 are known to display low levels of morphological divergence, yet significant genetic divergence and variability in chromosome number. Compared with Cryptocercus taxa from North America, the diversity of the genus in Asia has received relatively little attention. We performed morphological and ka...

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In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome of Cryptocercus meridianus was sequenced. The circular mitochondrial genome is 15,322 bp in size and contains 13 protein-coding genes, two ribosomal RNA genes (12S rRNA and 16S rRNA), 22 transfer RNA genes, and one D-loop region. We compare the mitogenome of C. meridianus with that of C. relictus and...

Four new species of cockroach genus Balta Tepper, 1893 are described and illustrated: B. crena sp. n., B. maculata sp. n., B. tangi sp. n., and B. yaoi sp. n. Balta picea (Bey-Bienko, 1958) is now regarded as a new synonym of Balta hwangorum (Bey-Bienko, 1958), which is redescribed and illustrated. Two new combinations are proposed: B. nodigera (Be...

The cockroach genus Eucorydia from China is revised. Five new species are described and illustrated: Eucorydia linglong sp. n., Eucorydia pilosa sp. n., Eucorydia splendida sp. n., Eucorydia guilinensis sp. n., and Eucorydia tangi sp. n.. Corydia purpuralis Kirby, 1903 and Eucorydia paucipilosa Woo, Guo & Feng, 1986 are confirmed to be junior synon...