About 4,600 species of flat-bodied insects, only about 30 of which live around people. Termites evolved from within the cockroaches. Cockroaches are among the hardiest insects.
Quick answers
What is it?Insect
Carnivore?Omnivore
Dangerous?No
Domesticated?No
Awake when?Night
It hides by day in crevices and leaf litter and comes out at night to feed.
Hibernates?No
Kept as a pet?No
Do people eat it?In places
Eaten in many places, though considered disgusting in the West.
At a glance
Found inWorldwide
HabitatTowns, Forest, Rainforest
ColoursBrown, Black
SizeTiny
Legs6
Covered inExoskeleton
Lives incolonies
Lives for1 year
Can fly
Can swim
Lays eggs
In the wild
- Where it lives
- Worldwide, from Arctic cold to tropical heat; tropical species are often much larger.
- What it eats
- Omnivores. The American cockroach eats bread, fruit, leather, book-binding starch, glue, hair and dead insects.
Did you know
Keeps breathing without its head, through holes along its body.
Some species stay active for a month without food, and some can go 45 minutes without air.
Often confused with
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