E6: New Species— Of Cockroach from Tasmania (and they’re huge!)

Shasta Henry, a Ph.D. candidate in entomology in the Discipline of Geography and Spatial Science at the University of Tasmania, is my guest! We discuss the significance of the name given to this new species, why it took 79 years to give this new species a name, how they shoot defensive stuff from their butts, and the importance of cockroaches in natural environments!

The title of the paper is “Polyzosteria cockroaches in Tasmania (Blattodea: Blattidae: Polyzosteriinae) represent a new, endemic species, with allopatric alpine and coastal sub-populations.” The paper is published in Zootaxa: https://www.mapress.com/j/zt/article/view/zootaxa.4926.3.4

To learn more about Shasta Henry, you can follow her on Twitter and Instagram, @hybopterashasta. To learn more about Tasmanian Aboriginal names, you can visit http://tacinc.com.au/official-aboriginal-and-dual-names/.

To get a copy of this paper, contact Shasta through Research Gate, here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/349156779_Polyzosteria_cockroaches_in_Tasmania_Blattodea_Blattidae_Polyzosteriinae_represent_a_new_endemic_species_with_allopatric_alpine_and_coastal_sub-populations