Australian cockroach
The Australian cockroach is a big brown cockroach with a bright yellow edge around its head shield. It also has pale yellow stripes on the sides of its wings. Funny enough, it does not really come from Australia.
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Fun facts
Scientists think it first came from Africa, not Australia.
It travelled around the world by hiding on ships and in goods.
It loves warmth and cannot stand the cold, but it can survive winter inside heated buildings.
It looks very much like the American cockroach, but it is a little smaller and has more yellow on it.
In warm weather it often lives outside around the walls of buildings and comes in looking for food.
Most asked questions about Australian cockroach
?Is the Australian cockroach from Australia?
No. Despite its name it probably comes from Africa. Today it lives in warm places all over the world.
?How big is an Australian cockroach?
It is about 2.5 to 3.5 centimetres long.
?What does the Australian cockroach eat?
Almost anything, but it likes plants more than other cockroaches do.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Periplaneta australasiae
- Group
- Cockroaches and termites
- Family
- Blattidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Blattodea > Blattidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Australia and Oceania, North America, South America, Asia, Europe
Where the facts come from
- Australian cockroach (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by kbkash. CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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