Kadambari Pathania
Aug 22, 2020
Updated: May 9, 2023
Periplaneta americana is the most common cockroach found mostly in Asia and Middle East (and despite its name, it is not native to America).
Periplaneta belongs to :
Cockroaches have typical insect body made up of three divisions of body- head, thorax and abdomen.
Here's a deceased female Periplaneta cockroach photographed from different views to show various structures such as mouth parts, antennae, eyes, legs, wings and sclerites present on the head, thorax and abdomen.
The triangular head of cockroach bears a pair of antennae, two laterally positioned compound eyes, a pair of ocelli and hypognathous mouth parts. The head and internal parts are protected by tiny sclerites that join to form head capsule (cranium of insects). It has chewing mouthparts which are laden with gustatory receptors to eat its favourite food.
The antenna are movable in their antennal sockets and have tactile and olfactory receptors in them.
The trunk, or thorax, is divisible into prothorax, mesothorax and metathorax. Each thoracic segment gives rise to a pair of walking legs (known as cursorial legs). The organism bears two pairs of wings. The fore wings, known as tegmina, arise from mesothorax and are dark and opaque. The hind wings arise from the metathorax and are used in flight, though cockroaches rarely resort to flight. The abdomen is divisible into 10 segments, each of which is surrounded by chitinous exoskeleton plates called sclerites, including dorsal tergites, ventral sternites, and lateral pleurites.
The life cycle of cockroach has around 6- 14 moults and the larval stage, called nymph, resembles the adult cockroach.
For more detailed study of cockroach's morphology, check out this video elaborating the body divisions and the appendages the cockroach has.
Periplaneta has a famous predator, much smaller than it in size, but more intelligent that makes the cockroach its living slave for food - Ampulex compressa.