ENY 3005 Families of Blattaria

Identifying characteristics for the order Blattaria include:

• Body usually flattened and oval.
• Head somewhat concealed from above by the pronotum.
• Antennae long, filiform.
• Legs long and slender, often spiny, adapted for running; tarsi 5 segmented.

• Many taxonomists lump cockroaches and mantids together in the order Dictyoptera.

• Family Cryptoceridae -- brown-hooded cockroach.
 The one species in the United States does not occur in Florida.
• Family Blattidae -- oriental, American, and other cockroaches
• Family Polyphagidae -- sand cockroaches and others
• Family Blattellidae -- German, brown-banded, and wood cockroaches
• Family Blaberidae -- Surinam cockroach and others

• U Delaware Insect Database. Provides a picture and brief information on the etymology, pronunciation, identification, and biology of the orders of insects.
• Dictyoptera Cockroaches and Mantids -- Gordon's Insect World
• Genetic Stock Center for the German Cockroach
• Cockroach World - New Jersey Online educational resource

• Cockroaches
• Cockroaches And Their Control
• Cockroach Control Without Insecticides

Family Blattidae
• Oriental Cockroach - Blatta orientalis
• Florida Woods Cockroach - Eurycotis floridana
• The Brown Cockroach - Periplaneta brunnea
• The Smokybrown Cockroach - Periplaneta fuliginosa
• The American Cockroach - Periplaneta americana
• The Australian Cockroach - Periplaneta australasiae

Family Blattellidae
• Field Cockroach - Blattella vaga
• The Asian Cockroach - Blattella asahinae
• The German Cockroach - Blattella germanica
• Brown-banded Cockroach - Supella longipalpa
• Wood Cockroaches - Parcoblatta pennsylvanica, P. fulvescens, P. virginica.

Family Blaberidae
• Surinam Cockroach - Pycnoscelus surinamensis

• Pages 86-87 and plate 2 in D. J. Borror and R. E. White. 1970. A Field Guide to the Insects. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Co.
• Pages 102-107 in R. G. Bland and H. E. Jaques. 1978. How to Know the Insects, 3rd ed. Dubuque, Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Co. 409 p.
• Pages 229-233 in D. J. Borror, C. A. Triplehorn, and N. F. Johnson. 1989. An Introduction to the Study of Insects, 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders College Publishing. 875 p.
• Pages 362-366 in H. V. Daly, J. T. Doyen, and A. H. Purcell III. 1998. Introduction to Insect

Biology and Diversity, 2nd ed. Oxford University Press. 680 p.