Habit and Habitat

Cockroaches are used as the representative animal type for phylum Arthropoda because they are found almost everywhere on earth — they are omnipresent. Within a home or its surroundings they are drawn to damp, moist places and to narrow crevices and cracks, where they can hide during the day and stay protected from predators and light.

Three habits describe how a cockroach lives:

• Omnivorous — it eats both plant and animal matter, and effectively anything organic it can find, including starchy household material.
• Nocturnal — it is active mainly at night and stays hidden in crevices during daylight hours.
• Cursorial — it is built for fast running rather than for jumping or sustained flight; its long legs let it scurry away from danger very quickly.

India is home to three common species of cockroach that are regularly encountered in and around houses: Periplaneta americana (the American cockroach, the large reddish-brown species most often used for dissection and study), Blatta orientalis (the Oriental cockroach) and Blatta germanica (the German cockroach, a smaller species). Periplaneta americana is the species described in detail through the rest of this chapter.