Chitwood (1930) found 75 percent of the German cockroaches examined from houses in Washington infected. As a rule, one adult female, one or two males, and possibly two larval females are found in a single individual, apparently only in the rectum.
Sobolev (1937) found 72 percent of Blattella germanica collected in Gorkov (U.S.S.R.) infected with Blatticola blattae. The mean number of worms per host was 1.8, the maximum 5. Sondak (1935) found about 30 percent of 788 B. germanica collected in Leningrad to be infected with B. blattae. Groschaft (1956) regularly found only single worms in B. germanica, collected in a laboratory in Prague, except for two females that contained 2 and 3 worms each.
Blattophila sphaerolaima Cobb, 1920
Synonymy.—Aorurus sphaerolaima (Cobb, 1920) Travassos, 1929. Although Chitwood (1932) indicated that the taxonomic position of this nematode is questionable, Chitwood and Chitwood, 1934, apparently accepted it as a valid species in describing the variety javanica.
Natural host.—Panesthia laevicollis [Cobb recorded the host as Panesthia brevicollis, but no such cockroach exists. Van Zwaluwenburg (1928) and Caudell (in Chitwood, 1932) believed that Cobb meant Panesthia laevicollis. According to Gurney (personal communication, 1957) Caudell's notes show that in 1933 he wrote to Dr. Chitwood and explained that he had compared Cobb's figure of the cockroach with laevicollis Saussure (figures and description) and had found them the same.] Australia, New South Wales (Cobb, 1920).
Blattophila sphaerolaima var. javanica Chitwood and Chitwood, 1934
Natural host.—Panesthia angustipennis, Philippine Islands (Chitwood and Chitwood, 1934).
Blattophila supellaima Basir, 1941
Natural host.—Supella supellectilium, India, Aligarh (Basir, 1941).