American cockroach
| American cockroach | ||||||||||||
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American cockroach ( Periplaneta americana ) |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Periplaneta americana | ||||||||||||
| ( Linnaeus , 1758) |
The American cockroach ( Periplaneta americana ) is a cockroach from the Blattidae family . It is one of the cockroaches (cockroaches) called representatives of the genus.
features
The cockroaches are between two and four centimeters long and have a red-brown body color. The pronotum is very large, the legs strong, the antennae are long and the wings are well developed so that the animals are able to fly. However, they rarely fly, but mostly move continuously. The wings of the females are shorter than those of the males.
Occurrence
Originally they were presumably widespread in South Asia , but in the meantime they have spread over large parts of the climatically favorable earth. They are native to all of North America and can be found in almost every port in the world. However, they prefer a warm climate and cannot tolerate the cold, so they are absent in cold regions or can only establish themselves locally in warm and dry places. In Central Europe this species is only found in warm regions.
Way of life
The cockroaches are pests in houses and apartments where they can find enough food to eat. Like all cockroaches, they are shy of light and very nimble in their movement. Their flat body allows them to crawl under very narrow cracks to hide.
In laboratory experiments it has been proven that the animals of this species can orient themselves in the earth's magnetic field and that their magnetic sense is comparable to that of migratory birds .
development
The red-brown, 7 to 12 millimeter long oothecae are buried in loose soil by the female and camouflaged or hidden in cracks. The development time is 5 to 12 months.
literature
- Helgard Reichholf-Riehm: Insects. 1984, Munich
- Welsch, Storch: Kükenthal - Zoological internship
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Martin Vácha, Tereza Půžová and Markéta Kvíćalová: Radio frequency magneticfields disrupt magneto reception in American cockroach. In: Journal of Experimental Biology. Volume 212, 2009, pp. 3473-3477, doi: 10.1242 / jeb.028670 .