Cryptocercus

Cryptocercus is a genus of Dictyoptera (cockroaches and allies) in the family Cryptocercidae, of which this genus is the only member. Species are known as wood roaches or brown-hooded cockroaches. They are subsocial xylophagous insects, found in North America and Asia.

Since 1996, DNA studies have led to the North American species C. punctulatus being divided into 5 separate species, bringing the world-wide species count to seven.

Cryptocercus is especially notable for sharing numerous characteristics with termites, and phylogenetic studies have shown that this genus is more closely related to termites than it is to other cockroaches.

References

• Nalepa, C.A., Byers, G.W., Bandi, C. and Sironi, M. 1997. "Description of Cryptocercus clevelandi from the Northwestern United States, molecular analysis of bacterial symbionts in its fat body and notes on biology, distribution and biogeography." Ann. Entomol. Soc. Amer. 90:416-424.
• Burnside, C.A., P.T. Smith and S. Kambhampati, 1999. "Three New Species of the Wood Roach, Cryptocercus (Blattodea: Cryptocercidae), From the Eastern United States." The World Wide Web Journal of Biology 4:1 [1]

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Cryptocercus spp. apart from having a common ancestor with termites is that a molecular analysis placed them deep within the Polyphagidae, and they are even close relatives of Therea spp.!(Grandcolas, 1996 and later).