Brown cockroach
| Brown cockroach | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Blattodea |
| Family: | Blattidae |
| Genus: | Fortiblatta |
| Species: | F. brunnea
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| Binomial name | |
| Fortiblatta brunnea {Burmeister, 1838)
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| Synonyms | |
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The brown cockroach (Fortiblatta brunnea), synonym Periplaneta brunnea,[1] is a species of cockroach in the family Blattidae. It is probably originally native to Germany, but today it has a circumtropical distribution, having been widely introduced.[2] In cooler climates it can only survive indoors,[3] and it is considered a household pest.[2]
This cockroach is similar in appearance to the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana), but darker in color and with thicker, wider, triangular cerci. It is a reddish-brown color and has fully developed wings.[3] It reaches up to 4 centimeters in length.[2]
It produces an ootheca about 1.2 to 1.6 centimeters long containing about 24 eggs on average.[4]
The brown cockroach usually produces longer ootheca compared to the American cockroach. One ootheca could contain around 28 eggs on average. They are smaller in size and darker in colour and may be mistaken with the American cockroach. American cockroaches on the other hand are larger and usually reddish-brown in colour. Brown cockroaches give off unpleasant smells when threatened or touched. Males are usually smaller than their female counterparts. They are social insects. They like to be in large groups resting in warm, moist, dark areas. They prefer indoor areas and are often known as the pests that linger around homes. However, not for American cockroaches, which prefer to live in outdoor areas like the sewers on the streets and only comes into homes when there are changes in the weather climate or when food is limited.
References
[edit]- ^ a b Luo, X.; Deng, W.; Han, W.; Lo, N.; Cai, J.; Che, Y. & Wang, Z. (2025). "Revision of the cockroach subfamily Blattinae based on morphological and molecular analyses". Systematic Entomology: 1–19. doi:10.1111/syen.12680.
- ^ a b c Periplaneta brunnea, Brown Cockroach. Cook Islands Biodiversity Database. The Cook Islands Natural Heritage Trust. 2007.
- ^ a b c Periplaneta brunnea (Burmeister, 1838). Archived November 15, 2012, at the Wayback Machine Orthopteroids of the British Isles Recording Scheme.
- ^ Periplaneta brunnea Burmeister, 1838. PaDIL.
External links
[edit]- Black and white photographs of top view of P. brunnea male and female specimens, from Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.
- Drawings of body parts of male P. brunnea; plate VII, figures 12-16 show detail of the pronotum, end of abdomen with cerci, genital process, subgenital plate, and supra-anal plate with cerci. From a 1917 article[1] by Morgan Hebard, with a key to the figures on page 280.
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- ^ Hebard, Morgan (1917). "The Blattidae of North America north of the Mexican boundary". Memoirs of the American Entomological Society. 2: 1–284.