Species group · Insects

Cockroaches

WAnimals has 5 species of cockroach, spread across 4 families (Blaberidae, Blattidae, Cryptocercidae, Ectobiidae).

5 species

4 families

2 countries

19 parks

Ranges calculated from the entries that record the figure, not from all 5.

All 5 species of cockroaches on WAnimals

Each one has its own full entry. This group does not replace them: it brings them together.

Hissing Cockroach

Gromphadorhina portentosa

Woodroach

Cryptocercus punctulatus

American Cockroach

Periplaneta americana

Oriental Cockroach

Blatta orientalis

German Cockroach

Blattella germanica

5 Not Evaluated

No species documented in this group is genuinely at risk according to the IUCN, with the data available today.

Recorded in 2 countries. The ones with the most species in the group:

It can make an audible hiss by forcing air out through a specialised pair of spiracles on its abdomen, an unusual mechanism among insects.
From Hissing Cockroach
Unlike most insects it has no working wings, and it is one of the few cockroaches that bears live young rather than laying an external ootheca.
From Hissing Cockroach
It hisses in a way unique among invertebrates: it does not rub body parts together but forces air out through a pair of modified abdominal spiracles. It is virtually the only insect that makes sound by breathing.
From Hissing Cockroach
The young are born without symbionts and must acquire them by ingesting anal secretions from their parents, which obliges the family to stay together for years.
From Woodroach
Its gut symbionts are almost identical to those of termites, and this cockroach is their closest living relative: termites are, in evolutionary terms, social cockroaches.
From Woodroach
A family can live together in the same gallery for more than three years, a degree of parental care very rare among non-social insects.
From Woodroach
It eats practically any organic material, food scraps, paper and other waste included.
From American Cockroach
It is an extremely abundant synanthropic species, found in sewers, cellars and towns the world over.
From American Cockroach