Periplaneta americana
| American cockroach | |
|---|---|
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| An American cockroach in action - first in real time, then slowed down to one-tenth speed | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Blattodea |
| Family: | Blattidae |
| Genus: | Periplaneta |
| Species: | P. americana |
| Binomial name | |
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Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus, 1758) |
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The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), also colloquially known as the waterbug, but not a true waterbug since it is not aquatic, or misidentified as the palmetto bug (see Florida woods cockroach for the differences), is the largest species of common cockroach, and often considered a pest. It is also known as the ship cockroach, kakerlac, and Bombay canary.
Despite the name, none of the Periplaneta species is endemic to the Americas; P. americana was introduced to the United States from Africa as early as 1625. They are now common in tropical climates because human activity has extended the insect's range of habitation, and are virtually cosmopolitan in distribution as a result of global commerce. American cockroaches are also known as plagues in the warm Mediterranean coast of Spain and Portugal (starting from Valencia to the Algarve) and in the Canary Islands; where the winters are mild/warm and frost-free, and the summers are hot or very hot.
Cockroaches date back to the Carboniferous period. They are thought to have emerged on the supercontinent Pangaea, or on Gondwana, the daughter continent of Pangaea. The cockroach made many adaptations over the years to be able to survive the major die-offs to which many species succumbed. However, like all the extant species, the American cockroach has probably evolved in the last few millions to thousands of years (during the Quarternary) and is a fully modern organism.
American cockroach are an average length of around 4 cm (1.6 in) and about 7 mm (0.28 in) tall. They are reddish brown and have a yellowish margin on the body region behind the head. Immature cockroaches resemble adults except they are wingless.
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Wikipedia