Common cockroach
| Common cockroach | ||||||||||||
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Males and females of the common cockroach ( Blatta orientalis ) |
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| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Blatta orientalis | ||||||||||||
| Linnaeus , 1758 |
The common cockroach ( Blatta orientalis ), also known as cockroach ( e ) in the true sense, baker's cockroach or oriental cockroach , is a type of cockroach (Blattodea), which is known as a storage pest mainly due to its way of life in human dwellings . In addition to the German cockroach ( Blattella germanica ) and the American cockroach ( Periplaneta americana ), it is one of the world's most common cockroaches in households, which are grouped together under the term cockroaches (cockroaches) . Like all cockroaches, it is very light-shy and has a red-brown body color. With a running speed of up to 1.5 m / s (5.4 km / h), the common cockroach is also considered to be the fastest crawling insect.
features
At first glance, the cockroach looks very similar to beetles because of its body , because it has fairly smooth wings that are bent lengthways, a round body and is dark in color. The cockroach has a rather flat body, the larvae and females lack wings, while males have wings but can no longer fly with them. The body color is dark brown to black, males are slightly lighter in color due to the wings. The legs are colored light brown. The antennae are thin and about a third as long as the body. The cockroach becomes up to 30 mm long.
habitat
The original range of the common cockroach is no longer known today, but it is assumed that it spread from the tropics and subtropics of South Asia. This assumption is also manifested in its name orientalis , which is why it is sometimes referred to as the oriental cockroach.
Today the common cockroach is a cosmopolitan worldwide and can even be found on remote islands. The only exception are the polar regions of the Arctic and Antarctic , where it is too cold for the animals.
The animals can squeeze through the narrowest gaps and as pests are very persistent and difficult to remove.
The cockroach is highly resilient; living specimens were found on the Bikini Atoll after atomic bomb tests and they were considered the last survivors in nuclear war scenarios of the Cold War . Like many modern sagas , this one is also untrue. It is true that cockroaches ( Periplaneta americana was tested ), like all insects, are far more resistant to nuclear radiation damage than humans. Compared to other insects, however, they are rather less resistant. The legend goes back to a misunderstood quote from the renowned American geneticist Bentley Glass from 1961, which developed a life of its own in a variant that was wrongly ascribed to him.
literature
- Jörg Hess, Regula Hess (illustrations): Secret lodgers . 4th edition, Reinhardt, Basel 1993, ISBN 3-7245-0795-X .
Web links
- Leaflet from the Pest Control Advice Center of the City of Zurich: The Oriental Cockroach , PDF file, 187 kB
Individual evidence
- ↑ New York nuclear target: A chance for cockroaches - DER SPIEGEL of October 20, 1980
- ^ Mary Berenbaum (2001): Rad Roaches. American Entomologist 47 (3): 132-133. doi: 10.1093 / ae / 47.3.132 , more popular: Mary Berenbaum: The Nuclear Cockroach. In: The Earwig's Tail: A Modern Bestiary of Multi-legged Legends. Harvard University Press, 2009 ISBN 978-0-674-05356-4 . Pages 96–101
- ↑ Sarah Brady Siff (2015): Atomic Roaches and Test-Tube Babies: Bentley Glass and Science Communication. Journalism & Communication Monographs 17 (2): 88-144. doi: 10.1177 / 1522637915577107