Turkestan cockroach
The Turkestan cockroach is a cockroach that mostly lives outdoors. The boys are slim and orange red with long yellowish wings, and the girls are dark brown to black with cream coloured edges. It comes from the dry lands between North Africa and Central Asia.
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Fun facts
Only the males can fly. The females have tiny wings that are too short for flying.
It probably came to the United States on army equipment from Central Asia and was first noticed there in 1978.
People raise it as food for pet lizards and other insect eaters, because it cannot climb smooth walls.
Its eggs take about four months to hatch.
Male cockroaches are attracted to lights, so they are the ones that sometimes wander inside.
Most asked questions about Turkestan cockroach
?Can Turkestan cockroaches fly?
The males can fly and glide. The females cannot, because their wings are too short.
?Do Turkestan cockroaches live in houses?
Mostly not. They live outside around buildings, in cracks, walls and underground boxes, but sometimes a male comes inside.
?Why do people keep Turkestan cockroaches?
As food for pet reptiles. They are healthy food and cannot climb out of smooth containers.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Periplaneta lateralis
- Group
- Cockroaches and termites
- Family
- Blattidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Blattodea > Blattidae
- Lives on
- Africa, Asia, North America
- Also known as
- Red runner cockroach, Rusty red cockroach
Where the facts come from
- Turkestan 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 (c) Cory Butterfield, some rights reserved (CC BY). CC BY 4.0, 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 hello@bugwiki.app and we will fix it.
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