Periplaneta americana

Classification Phylum : Arthropoda Class : Insecta Order : Orthoptera Genus : Periplaneta Species : americana Cockroach is a typical cosmopolitan insect and exhibits all the fundamental characteristics of Class Insecta. Generally cockroaches are reddish brown or black bodied with a light brown margin in the first thoracic segment. They are omnivores, nocturnal, living in damp and warm places and are quite common in kitchens, hotels, bakeries, restaurants, warehouse, sewage and public places. Periplaneta is a cursorial (swift runner) animal.

It is dioecious and oviparous and exhibits parental care. They carry with them harmful germs of various bacterial diseases like cholera, diarrhoea, tuberculosis, and typhoid and hence are known as “ Vectors ”. Morphology The adult cockroaches are about to cm in length and about 1cm in width. The body of the cockroach is compressed dorso-ventrally, bilaterally symmetrical, segmented and is divisible into three distinct regions – head, thorax and abdomen.

The entire body is covered by a hard, brown coloured, chitinous exoskeleton. In each segment, exoskeleton has hardened plates called sclerites , which are joined together by a delicate and elastic articular membrane or arthrodial