Organization and functioning of social groups in a gregarious cockroach: Another insect society

International audienceThe majority of cockroach species actually described are classified as 'gregarious', meaning that individuals of these species live in groups, at least during a large part of their life cycle, although the rules governing the functionning of these aggregates are not fully understood. Our study highlighted that in Blatella germanica (L): I) the presence of conspecifics is crucial to the physiological and behavioural development of each individual, II) a kin recognition shape the whole social life from the choice of a resting partner to that of a mating partner. This recognition system maintains the genetic flow within groups and tends to minimize inbreeding deleterious effects. In addition III) group members cooperate and share information to exploit environmental resources. Our data raised the question of sociality in coackroaches and related sub-orders