THE COCKROACH SUBFAMILY BLATTINAE (DICTYOPTERA: BLATTODEA: BLATTIDAE) OF MT. MAKILING, LOS BAÑOS, LAGUNA.

Cockroaches (Insecta: Blattodea) are not the most charismatic group of insects to be studied, especially with their reputation as household pests. Of the 4500+ described species of cockroaches (excluding termites), only 127 species are recorded in the Philippines 12 of which are introduced while 63 are endemic to the country.  On a recent review of museum specimens collected from Mt. Makiling and surrounding areas, eleven species of blattine cockroaches from genera Periplaneta Burmeister, Neostylopyga Shelford, Dorylaea Stal, and Hebardina Bei-bienko (Blattidae: Blattinae) were recorded.  A taxonomic key distinguishing each genus was constructed and important taxonomic characters were tabulated. Four of the recorded species are naturalized and were collected on areas near human establishments. On the other hand two are new locality records while five are possibly new species. This provides an insight on the number of possible new taxa that are yet to be described or recorded from the country.