Photos of various cockroaches

Few people 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 well-known and popular Prusaks should be considered in detail in photographs, so as not to accidentally confuse the first conquerors of an apartment with occasional guests from the street. In addition, it is in the photo you can look at the difference between the types of cockroaches and the stages of their development.

 

Photos of domestic cockroaches: all types and stages of development

Three types of cockroaches are the most common in a person’s housing: red, he is Prusac, black and American. In the tropics, more exotic human friends are crawling into homes, but it is difficult to call them synanthropic species.

reference

A synanthropic type of animal or plant is a species that in a city,A person's village or dwelling feels better than in the wild. Sometimes these species in nature do not occur at all. Examples are house sparrows, rats, bed bugs, pharaoh ants. Do not confuse synanthropic species with species tamed by humans - dogs, cats or pigeons.

Usual red cockroach known to almost any resident of the northern hemisphere. The photo shows several adult individuals of this species:

Above on the photo is a male, from below - a female with an egg (oteca). Females have a slightly wider and denser abdomen, but males are very slender and more mobile.

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

It is interesting

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

But the Germans on the contrary call these insects "Russian cockroaches." We are often called “tanchik”, “stasik”, “tarik” and “tram”.

Immediately after hatching, the larvae are very small, do not exceed a millimeter in length, and have an almost transparent body. However, already several hours after the birth of a small cockroach, the chitinous cover hardens, and they become slightly 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 adult individuals. For this, scientists call larvae nymphs to differentiate this stage of development from typical larvae in beetles or butterflies. Adult cockroaches, like other insects, are scientifically called imago.

Looking closely at the end of the abdomen of each insect, two small appendages can be seen. They are called cerks and testify to the general primitiveness of cockroaches in general - the more evolved insects have cercae.

That cerki - the most reliable way to distinguish the cockroach from the bug.In the photo of a cockroach during macro photography you can see the end of its abdomen, and in the photo below you can see the end of the abdomen of the bed bug:

Black cockroaches are different from red in color and size. Prusaks are really small next to adult individuals of black counterparts, barely reaching half the length of their bodies. In the photo you can estimate the size of the imago of this species:

As can be seen from the photo, only the coal color is present in the coloring of the black cockroach. The nymphs of this species have brown transverse stripes delineating segments of the abdomen. The photo clearly shows the difference in the coloring of the imago and the larvae:

The females of the black cockroach are very short wings and wide abdomen. In males, the wings almost cover the entire abdomen. However, fly black cockroaches do not know how, only males are able to jump far and increase the length of the jump with the help of wings fluttering. In the photo on the left - the male, on the right - the female:

On a note

Prusak also does not know how to fly, but if it falls from the ceiling or a great height, it can flap its wings and to some extent control the fall. Among the tropical species of cockroaches there are those that fly very well and can fly at night to light bulbs.

The American cockroach is less “domesticated” than the black and red. It can live in forests and fields, but when it comes to the conditions of a city, it easily goes on feeding on human food and actively reproduces.

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

... and here - 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 can take him for a cockroach nest or a colony of cockroaches, and even think that in such a colony there is a queen like a bee. It is not: there is no organization in this settlement.

 

Video footage with various cockroaches

Cockroach eggs: what do they look like?

Breeding cockroaches quite specific. They do not lay individual eggs, like most other insects, but they are packed in a special chamber - a womb, which the female carries at the end of the abdomen. The photo of the Prusak is visible in the photo:

Females of different types wore oteka at different times. Prusak this period is 20-30 days, depending on the temperature in the room. And almost immediately after the laying off of the stream, larvae hatch from it.

In black cockroaches, a “pregnant” female lays an oteca about a week after the beginning of its development, and for 2-3 weeks the eggs develop without supervision. This is used by the Prussians, who eat the Black Cockroaches and thus destroy them. Perhaps for this reason, the red-haired cockroach ousted black from the apartments.

The photo shows the swelling of a black cockroach:

In many tropical species of cockroaches, females not only carry their oteke until the end of such a peculiar pregnancy, but also protect and care for nymphs for several days. They usually have a very nice, soft, white and long.

For example, the photograph shows the library Madagascar cockroach:

 

Unusual cockroaches found in apartments

Of the unusual cockroaches, the attention of a person in an apartment is primarily attracted to white cockroaches. These are not albinos, but simply just older nymphs.

In the first hours after the release of chitinous cover, they have a soft white body, which gradually hardens and acquires a color characteristic of the imago.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 - white prusak:

In the south of Kazakhstan, in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, a brown and slightly larger Turkmen cockroach can be found in human housing. He is very fond of terrariumists for the fact that he can not crawl on the glass. In the photo - a small group of insects:

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

They are interesting because 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, it is impossible not to admire the individual tropical cockroaches - the famous Madagascar:

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

... and gigantic:

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

 

Why cockroaches can not get rid of

 

Madagascar giant hissing cockroaches