Photos of various cockroaches

Few people do not know what a domestic cockroach looks like. Each person met them several times in his life, and probably managed to admire their tropical relatives at various exhibitions or in terrariums.

Nevertheless, even famous and popular Prussians should be examined in detail in the photographs, so as not to inadvertently confuse the first conquerors of the apartment with random guests from the street. In addition, it is in the photo that you can see in detail the difference between the types of cockroaches and the stages of their development.

 

Photos of domestic cockroaches: all types and stages of development

The most common in human housing are three types of cockroaches: red, aka Prussian, black and American. In the tropics, more exotic human friends also crawl into houses, but it is difficult to call them synanthropic species.

Reference

A synanthropic species of an animal or plant is a species that feels better in a city, village or human habitation than in the wild. Sometimes such species do not occur in nature at all. Examples are house sparrows, rats, bed bugs, pharaoh ants. Do not confuse synanthropic species with species tamed by man - dogs, cats or pigeons.

An ordinary red cockroach is known to almost any inhabitant of the northern hemisphere. The photo shows several adults of this species:

Above in the photo is a male, below is a female with an egg (ootheca). Females have a slightly wider and denser abdomen, while males are very slender and more mobile.

Prusak larvae differ from adults in size, slightly more dense physique and lack of wings. The coloration of the larvae is also somewhat different from that of adult insects: two long black stripes run through the entire body from the head to the end of the abdomen. In adult insects, only two dashes remain on the cephalothorax from these stripes. These color elements are clearly visible in the photo:

It is interesting

The red cockroach has more names than any other insect. Most often it is called Prusak - this name has been fixed since the time of the Napoleonic wars, when it was believed that cockroaches were brought to Russia from Prussia.

But the Germans, on the contrary, call these insects "Russian cockroaches." We often call them “tanchiks”, “stasiks”, “tarikis” and “trams”.

Immediately after emerging from the eggs, the larvae are very small, do not exceed a millimeter in length, and have an almost transparent body. However, already a few hours after the birth, the chitinous cover hardens in small cockroaches, and they become a little darker. The photo below shows young cockroach larvae next to a pregnant female:

On a note

Cockroaches, like crickets, bedbugs and aphids, are insects with incomplete transformation, and their larvae look like small copies of adults. For this, scientists call the larvae nymphs in order to differentiate this stage of development from typical larvae in beetles or butterflies. Adult cockroaches, like other insects, are scientifically called adults.

Looking closely, at the end of the abdomen of each insect, you can see two small appendages. They are called cerci and testify to the general primitiveness of cockroaches in general - in more evolutionarily developed insects, cerci are absent.

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It is the cerci that are the most reliable way to distinguish a cockroach from a bug. In the photo of a cockroach in macro photography, the end of its abdomen is visible, and in the photo below - the end of the abdomen of a bed bug:

Black cockroaches differ from red ones in color and size. The Prussians are really small next to the adults of their black counterparts, barely reaching half the length of their body. In the photo you can estimate the size of the imago of this species:

As you can see from the photo, only charcoal is present in the color of the black cockroach.The nymphs of this species have brown transverse stripes outlining the segments of the abdomen. The photo clearly shows the difference in the color of adults and larvae:

The female black cockroach has very short wings and a wide abdomen. In males, the wings almost cover the entire abdomen. However, black cockroaches cannot fly, only males are able to jump far and, with the help of flapping wings, increase the length of the jump. In the photo on the left is a male, on the right is a female:

On a note

The Prussian also cannot fly, but if it falls from a ceiling or a great height, it can flap its wings and control the fall to a certain extent. Among tropical species of cockroaches, there are those that fly very well and can flock at night to the light of lamps.

The American cockroach is less "domesticated" than black and red. It can live in forests and fields, but when it gets into the conditions of the city, it easily switches to eating human food and actively reproduces.

It was with man and his cargoes that this species spread throughout the world and is considered today a cosmopolitan. The photo shows the imago of the "American", in which the female is only slightly denser than the male:

... and here are nymphs of different ages:

Cockroaches do not have nests, but they prefer to gather in groups in the most comfortable places. Having found such a shelter, a person may mistake it for a nest of cockroaches or a colony of cockroaches, and even think that a queen like a bee is present in such a colony. This is not so: there is no organization in this settlement.

 

Video footage with various cockroaches

Cockroach eggs: what do they look like?

The reproduction of cockroaches is quite specific.They do not lay individual eggs, like most other insects, but pack them in a special chamber - an ootheca, which the female wears at the end of the abdomen. The photo shows the Prusak ootheca:

Females of different species wear ootheca at different times. For Prussians, this period is 20-30 days, depending on the temperature in the room. Moreover, almost immediately after laying the ootheca, larvae hatch from it.

In black cockroaches, the "pregnant" female lays ootheca about a week after the start of its development, and the eggs develop unattended for 2-3 weeks. This is used by the Prussians, who eat the ootheca of black cockroaches and thus exterminate them. Perhaps for this reason, the red cockroach drove the black out of the apartments.

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The photo shows the swelling of a black cockroach:

In many tropical species of cockroaches, the females not only wear the ootheca until the end of such a peculiar pregnancy, but also protect and care for the nymphs for several days. Their ootheca is usually very soft, white and long.

For example, the photograph shows the ootheca of the Madagascar cockroach:

 

Unusual cockroaches found in apartments

Of the unusual cockroaches, the attention of a person in an apartment is primarily attracted by white cockroaches. These are not albinos, but simply nymphs that have just become adults.

In the first hours after the shedding of the chitinous cover, they have a soft white body, which gradually hardens and acquires a color characteristic of adults. During this period, the insect tries to be in a secluded place, but sometimes it still catches the eye.

Every cockroach is white once in a lifetime.In the photo below - a white Prussian:

In the south of Kazakhstan, in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a brown and slightly larger Turkmen cockroach can be found in human housing. Terrariumists love him very much because he cannot crawl on glass. In the photo - a small group of insects:

And the following photo shows ash cockroaches, also called Egyptian:

They are interesting in that they are able, like termites, to feed on wood and paper. They live in the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean.

And of course, one cannot help but admire the individual tropical cockroaches - the famous Madagascar ones:

... banana ones, the ones that fly well:

...and gigantic:

... to make sure that even such seemingly unpleasant planetary neighbors can be extremely beautiful and interesting.

 

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Giant hissing Madagascar cockroaches