American Cockroach

The American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) is the largest common house-infesting cockroach, about 4 centimeters long. Despite its name it came from Africa and spread worldwide on ships.

🧬 Field Guide Specimen: Open American Cockroach in the CRV Science Field Guide to log the specimen, see its place among the Ecdysozoa lineages in the Cladogram Explorer, and test your recall in the Red List conservation game.

Hairs on the two tail-like cerci detect air movements from an approaching foot or a puff of air. Giant nerve fibers carry the signal to leg muscles in a few hundredths of a second, and the cockroach is running before the threat arrives. The circuit has been a classic subject in neuroscience.

Cockroaches can live for weeks without food and a month without water, and flatten to squeeze into cracks. They scavenge in sewers, basements and kitchens, and their droppings and shed skins are allergens linked to asthma.

Cockroaches and termites together make up the order Blattodea, and wood-eating cockroaches are the sister group of termites. See Formosan Subterranean Termite.