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.
Additional information:
Many taxonomists lump cockroaches and mantids together in the order Dictyoptera.
Classification of the Blattaria
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
Links to other web sites
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
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.