ABSTRACT
The evolution of modem man can be described as a series of successful adaptions and transitions from the natural or primitive environment to the agricultural environment, and finally to the human environment. Many of the arthropods and vertebrates that completed the transition to the human environment exist there as pest populations. The primary components of the urban ecosystem are the human and non-human and the physical structures. The primitive or original habitat is the Eubiocoenosis; cultural or secondary habitats are the Agrobiocoenosis and the Anthropobiocoenosis. The pest status of arthropods found in peridomestic habitats may be significantly different from the status given to arthropods in Anthropobiocoenosis II, the domestic environment. The regular use of pesticides for suppressing arthropod and rodent pests has become a part of urban and household environment since chemicals became available in the mid 1940s. For some species successful transition to Anthropobiocoenosis was linked to species-specific resource requirements, and the range of constraints exerted by the habitat.
