American Cockroach Periplaneta americana

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American Cockroach Periplaneta americana
Order Blattaria Family Blattidae
James Holden Bug of the Day 15
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Order Blattaria (bla-TAIR-ri-ah)

• Big Three Characteristics
• 2 Pairs of wings usually present
• The front wings are leathery (tegmina)
• They have chewing mouthparts
• They undergo incomplete metamorphoses
• Other Characteristics
• Body oval
• Head concealed by pronotum (region directly
  behind the head) when viewed from above
• Antennae long and threadlike
• Legs very spiny
• Cerci Large with many segments

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Cerci Large with many segments
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Cockroaches are very primitive insects. Their
ancestors lived 200-350 million years ago in the
Carboniferous Period, even before the dinosaurs
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• Genus Periplaneta
• Forty-seven species are included in the genus
  Periplaneta
• None endemic to the U.S.
• Periplaneta americana (American Cockroach)
• Introduced to the United States from Africa as
  early as 1625

47 Species
Hi, Im not from around here
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Where to find Periplaneta americana

• A peridomestic species (generally live outdoors)
• Usually live in moist, humid environments but can
  survive in dry areas if they have access to
  water.
• They prefer temperatures between 70F and 85F
  and will not survive 15F.
• In structures, American cockroaches are common in
  areas where food is prepared or stored and
  moisture is plentiful.

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Periplaneta americana info

• Omnivorous and opportunistic feeder.
• A scavenger- consumes decaying organic matter
• It prefers sweets but also can eat
• paper, boots, hair, bread, fruit, book bindings,
  fish, peanuts, old rice, putrid sake, the soft
  part on the inside of animal hides, cloth and
  dead insects..etc..

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More Periplaneta americana info

• Three life stages
• The egg case (Ootheca)
• Variable number of nymphal instars
• Adult (6-14)
• The life cycle
• Egg to adult averages about 600 days
• Adult life span may be another 400 days
• The immatures emerge from the egg case in about
  six to eight weeks and mature in about six to
  twelve months.
• Adults can live up to one year and an adult
  female will produce an average of 160 young in
  her lifetime.

Ootheca
Nymphs
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The Ootheca (egg case)

• Females produce an ootheca about one week after
  mating
• females on average produce an egg case about once
  a month for ten months laying 16 eggs per egg
  case.
• The female deposits the ootheca near a source of
  food by either simply dropping it or gluing it to
  a surface with a secretion from her mouth.
• The deposited ootheca contains water sufficient
  for the eggs to develop without receiving
  additional water from the substrate
• The egg case is brown when deposited and turns
  black in a day or two
• it is about 8 mm long and 5 mm high.

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Male or Female?

• The adult American cockroach is reddish brown in
  appearance with a pale-brown or yellow band
  around the edge of the pronotum
• Both sexes have a pair of cerci, finger-like
  appendages, at the tips of their abdomens.
• Males have cerci with 18 to 19 segments
• female cerci has 13 to 14 segments
• Male cockroaches have an additional set of
  appendages called styli on their abdomens.
• The styli are located between the cerci but are
  smaller and more delicate.

Styli
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Economic Importance

• Health problems
• spread due to their association with human waste
  and disease
• They move from sewers into homes and commercial
  establishments
• At least 22 species of pathogenic human bacteria,
  virus, fungi, and protozoans, as well as five
  species of helminthic worms, have been isolated
  from field collected American cockroaches (Rust
  et. al. 1991).

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Classroom Activity

• Who Learns Better?
• Assessing the behavior of these insects in a
  maze, allows students to decide if the cockroach
  manifests learning or an inability to learn.
• http//www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1995/co
  lvard_cockroach.html

A
B
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Fun Things to Do With Your Bug Collection After
Hours
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Resources

• 1. University of Florida (general info on
  cockroach)
• http//creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/urban/roaches/americ
  an_cockroach.htm
• 2. Virginia Tech (general info on cockroach)
• http//www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/entomology/444-288/444-
  288.html
• 3. Pests A to Z
• http//www.pestworldforkids.com/cockroaches.html
• 5. Cockroach Facts- Questions and Answers
• http//www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_
  faq.html
• 6. Cockroach learning activity
• http//www.accessexcellence.org/AE/AEC/AEF/1995/co
  lvard_cockroach.html