Q.Mark the odd one in the following:
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🔒 Start your 14-day free trial to unlock the full solution →Concept understanding — Cockroach Morphology
Cockroach Morphology — First Look
Imagine you're looking at a cockroach scuttling across the floor. The first thing you notice is its flat, oval body — that shape is no accident. It lets the cockroach squeeze into cracks thinner than a coin. But what you're really seeing is a body built on a simple, ancient plan: head, thorax, abdomen, with a hard outer shell (exoskeleton) and jointed legs.
The cockroach you'll study is Periplaneta americana, the American cockroach. It's about 3–4 cm long, reddish-brown, and has wings (though it prefers running to flying). Every external feature you see — the antennae waving, the legs gripping, the tiny plates covering its back — is a clue to how it survives.
The Body Plan: Three Regions, One Purpose
The cockroach body is segmented — like a train of repeating units — but these segments are grouped into three distinct regions. Each region has a job.
The cockroach body is divided into head, thorax, and abdomen. The exoskeleton is made of hardened plates called sclerites: dorsal plates are tergites, ventral plates are sternites.
1. Head — The Sensory Command Centre
The head is small, triangular, and bent downward (hypognathous — mouth points down). It's formed by the fusion of six segments, but you won't see the seams.
Key features:
- Compound eyes — two large, kidney-shaped eyes made of thousands of tiny visual units (ommatidia). They give a mosaic view, excellent for detecting movement.
- Antennae — a pair of long, thread-like structures arising from membranous sockets. Each antenna has three parts: scape (base), pedicel (stalk), and flagellum (the long whip). They're sensory organs for touch, smell, and humidity.
- Mouthparts — adapted for chewing. They include:
- Labrum (upper lip)
- Mandibles (hard, toothed jaws for cutting)
- Maxillae (paired, with feelers called palps for tasting)
- Labium (lower lip, also with palps)
The head is not segmented externally — the fusion is complete. But the mouthparts and antennae are modified appendages from those original segments.
2. Thorax — The Locomotion Hub
The thorax is made of three segments: prothorax, mesothorax, and metathorax. Each segment bears a pair of legs. The mesothorax and metathorax each also bear a pair of wings.
Legs — three pairs, all jointed. Each leg has five parts: coxa (short, broad), trochanter (small), femur (thick), tibia (long, spiny), and tarsus (five segments ending in a pair of claws with a pad — the pulvillus — for gripping smooth surfaces). The legs are adapted for running — fast.
Wings — two pairs. The forewings (on mesothorax) are thick, leathery, and called tegmina (singular: tegmen). They cover and protect the hindwings (on metathorax), which are membranous, folded like a fan, and used for flight. In females, wings are shorter; in males, they extend beyond the abdomen.
The prothorax has a large, shield-like plate called the pronotum — it covers the head from above. That's the big, smooth area you see behind the head.
3. Abdomen — The Metabolic Engine
The abdomen has 10 segments in both sexes, but the last few are modified for reproduction. In females, the 7th sternite is boat-shaped and forms a genital pouch (brood chamber). In males, the 9th and 10th segments bear anal cerci (paired, jointed feelers) and anal styles (unjointed, only in males).
Key features:
- Tergites — dorsal plates. The first tergite is small; tergites 2–10 are visible.
- Sternites — ventral plates. Only 7 are visible in females (the 7th is large), 9 in males.
- Spiracles — 10 pairs of tiny openings along the sides of the abdomen (and 2 on the thorax). They're the breathing pores — air enters the tracheal system through them.
- Anus — at the posterior end, between the cerci.
Don't confuse cerci (jointed, present in both sexes) with anal styles (unjointed, present only in males). Cerci are sensory; styles are part of the male reproductive apparatus.
Segmentation — The Big Picture …
Mesothorax, Metathorax and Coxa are all parts of an insect's (arthropod) body, while Protonema is a stage in the plant (moss) life cycle, so it is the odd one out. …
Three of the four terms — Mesothorax, Metathorax and Coxa — are insect (arthropod) body parts, while Protonema belongs to plant (bryophyte) biology, making it the odd one out.
Looking at each term:
- Mesothorax and Metathorax are the second and third segments of an insect's thorax (the first is the prothorax) — for example, in the cockroach, wings and legs arise from these thoracic segments.
- Coxa is the first (basal) segment of an insect's jointed leg, by which the leg attaches to the thorax. …
- CBSE 2023Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.Strip of dorsal surface of cockroach is called :(a) tergum(b) sternum(c) pluron(d) plastron
›Reveal solutionSolution
The dorsal plate is the tergum.
In cockroach each body segment is covered by chitinous plates: the dorsal plate is the tergum (tergite), the ventral plate is the sternum (sternite), and the lateral connecting areas are the pleura. So the dorsal str …
- CBSE 2022Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.The number of abdominal segments in male and female coackroach is(a) 10, 10(b) 9, 10(c) 10, 11(d) 8, 10
›Reveal solutionSolution
Cockroach abdomen has 10 segments in both sexes → (a).
As described in NCERT Class 11 Biology (Structural Organisation in Animals):
- The abdomen of Periplaneta americana is made of 10 segments in both male and female. …
- CBSE 2018Set zoology1 markMCQQ.Mark the odd one in the following:(a) Protonema(b) Mesothorax(c) Metathorax(d) Coxa
›Reveal solutionSolution
Three of the four terms — Mesothorax, Metathorax and Coxa — are insect (arthropod) body parts, while Protonema belongs to plant (bryophyte) biology, making it the odd one out.
Looking at each term:
- Mesothorax and Metathorax are the second and third segments of an insect's thorax (the first is the prothorax) — for example, in the cockroach, wings and legs arise from these thoracic segments.
- Coxa is the first (basal) segment of an insect's jointed leg, by which the leg attaches to the thorax. …
- CBSE 2018Set ANNUAL1 markMCQQ.The dorsal skeletal plate (tergum) of a cockroach is called:(a) Notum(b) Cuticle(c) Sternum(d) Coxa
›Reveal solutionSolution
The dorsal exoskeletal plate of each body segment in a cockroach is called the notum (tergum); the corresponding ventral plate is the sternum.
The cockroach body is covered by a chitinous exoskeleton (cuticle) that is divided, segment by segment, into hardened plates called sclerites, connected by flexible membranous areas that allow movement. On each segment: the dorsal plate is the notum (also called tergum), the ventral plate is the sternum, and the lateral plates are the pleura. Cuticle (option b) is the general term for the entire chitinous covering, not specifically the dorsal …
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