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COCKROACH
Scientific name = Periplaneta americana.
Colour = brown or black bodies or (bright yellow, red and green which
are found in tropical region)
Phylum = Arthopoda
Class = Insecta
Size = 1/4th inches to 3 inches (0.6 to 7.6 cm)
**long antenna.
• Noctural Animal , Omnivores.
• Found in damp places.
• Residence of human home -> act as serious pests and vector
also.
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Body is segmented and divided into 3 regions :
• Head
• Thorax
• Abdomen
**Body covered by exoskeleton
• made by chitin.
• brown in colour.
--- In each segment exoskeleton has hard plate = sclerite.
• Dorsally = tergites & ventrally = sternites.
Scletites are joined with each other by thin & flexible articular
membrane which is called Arthrodial Membrane.
HEAD :-
• Triangular in shape.
• LOCATION = lies anteriorly at right angle to the longitudinal body
axis.
• Formed by fusion of 6 segments.
• Mobile in all directions due to flexible neck.
• Head bears a pair of compound eye.
• A thread like structure arise from membranous socket lying
infront of eyes known as Antennae.
** These antennae have sensory receptors that help in monitoring the
environment.
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• Anterior end of the head bears appendages which help in biting
& chewing.
MOUTH :-
• A labrium (Upper lip)
• A pair of mandibles.
• A pair of maxillae.
• A labium (Lower lip)
✓ A tongue like structure = Hypopharynx lies within the cavity
enclosed by the mouthparts.
THORAX :-
Divided into three parts :
✓ Prothorax
✓ Mesothorax
✓ Metathorax
Head is connected with thorax by a short extension of the prothorax
known as neck.
➢ Each thorax segment bears a pair of walking legs.
➢ First pair of wings arise from Mesothorax.
➢ Second pair of wings arise from Metathorax.
FOREWINGS (MESOTHORACIC) :-
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• It is called as tegmina.
• Opaque dark.
• Leathery.
• Cover the hind wings at rest.
HINDWINGS (METATHORACIC) :-
• Transparent.
• Membranous.
• Used in flight.
ABDOMEN:-
➢ 10 segments (both male & female)
FEMALE:
• 7th sternum boat shaped.
• Together with the 8th & 9th sterna forms a brood or genital
spermathecal pores and collateral glands.
MALE:-
• Genital pouch / chamber lies at the hind end of abdomen
bounded dorsally by 9th & 10th terga and ventrally by 9th
sternum.
• Contains dorsal anus , ventral male genital pore & gonapophysis.
NOTE : Males bear a pair of short thread like anal styles which is
absent in female.
✓ 10th segment ( in both male & female) contain a part of jointed
filamentous structures called anal cerci.
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ANATOMY :-
ALIMENTARY CANAL :-
✓ Foregut.
✓ Midgut.
✓ Hindgut.
Mouth
Pharynx (short tubular style)
Oesophagus (narrow tubular passage)
Crop (stores food)
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Crizzard or proventriculus ( has outer layer of thick circular muscles &
thick inner cuticle forming 6 highly chitinous plate called teeth that
helps in grinding the food properly)
➢ Whole foregut lined by cuticle.
➢ 6-8 rings of blind tubules (Hepatic caecae)
Located at the junction of foregut & midgut
Digestive juices.
➢ 100 to 150 yellow coloured thin filamentous structure.
MALPHIGIAN TUBULE
Excretion.
✓ Hindgut is broader than midgut.
✓ Hindgut is differentiated into ileum , column and rectum.
✓ Rectum opens out through anus.
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM:-
✓ Blood vacular system = open.
✓ Blood vessels poorly developed.
✓ Blood vessels open into space (haemocoel)
✓ Visceral organs located in haemocoel and bathed in blood
(haemolymph)
Consists of colourless plasma + haemocytes.
HEART = elongated muscular tube lying along the mid-dorsal line of
thorax and abdomen.
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Heart is differentiated into funnel shapped chambers with ostia on
either side.
Blood from sinuses enters heart through ostia.
Again pumped to sinuses antoriarly.
RESPIRATORY SYSTEM:-
➢ consists of network of trachea.
Opens through 10 pairs of small holes called spiracles (present
on the lateral side of the body)
Trachea sub-divided into tracheoles → 1. Carry oxygen from the
air to all the parts. 2. Help in exchange of gases by diffusion.
The opening of spiracles is regulated by sphincher.
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EXCRETION:-
➢ It’s performed by Malphigian tubules.
lined by glandular and ciliated cells.
They absorb nitrogenous wastes and convert them into uric acid.
Excrete uric acid through the hindgut.
Insect is uricotelic.
➢ Additional excretory parts :-
Fat body , nephrocytes and urecose glands.
NERVOUS SYSTEM :-
Nervous system consists of series of fused segmentally arranged
ganglia joined by paired longitudinal connectives on the ventral side.
Ganglia → 3 present in thorax & 6 present in abdomen.
NS system of cockroach is spread throughout the body.
• Head holds a bit of NS.
• Mostly situated along the ventral (belly-side) parts of the body.
NOTE :- This is the reason why a cockroach can live as long as one
week if it’s head is cut off.
represented by
Brain supra-oesophageal ganglia.
It supplies nerves to the antennae and compound eye.
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Sense organ of cockroach :-
✓ Antennae.
✓ Eyes.
✓ Maxillary palps.
✓ Labial palps.
✓ Cerci etc…
Compound eyes :-
• situated at dorsal surface of the head.
• Each eye consists of about 2000 hexagonal ommatida (sing:
ommatidium)
• These several ommatidia , a cockroach can receive several image
of an object.
This is called as mosaic vision (with more sensitivity but less
resolution being common during night called as nocturnal vision).
REPRODUCTION :-
Cockroach → dioecious(unisexual)
→ well developed reproductive organs.
IN MALES :
A pair of testes (lying on each lateral side in the 4th – 6th abdominal
segments) → opens into thin vas-deferens → opens into ejaculatory
duct through seminal vesicle → opens into male genopore (situated
ventral to anus).
Musroom gland :-
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✓ Present in 6th – 7th abdominal segment.
✓ Acts as an accessory reproductive gland.
External genitalia are represented by male ganophophysis or
phallomere(chitinous asymmetrical structures surrounding the male
gonophore)
SEMINAL VESICLES :-
• Stores sperms.
• Sperms are glued together in the form of bundle called as
spermatophores.
This spermatophores discharged during copulation.
IN FEMALES :
2 large ovaries (lying laterally in the 2nd – 6th abdominal
segment)→ each ovary consists of 8 ovarian tubules or ovarioles →
containing a chain of developing ovary → oviduct of each ovary
unite into a single median oviduct (also called as vagina)→ which
opens into the genital chamber.
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A pair of spermatheca is present in the 6th segment which opens into
genital chamber.
Spermatophores → sperms.
➢ sperms are transferred through spermatophores.
OOTHECAE:-
✓ Capsule which encase the fertilized eggs.
✓ Dark reddish to blackish brown.
✓ About 3/8” (8mm) long.
✓ Female produces 9-10 oothecae.
Each oothecae containing 14-16 eggs.
✓ They are dropped or glued to a suitable surface usually in a crack
or crevice of high relative humidity near a food source.
➢ Development of [Link] is paurometabolous ( meaning:
development passes through nymph stage)
NOTE: Nymph has wing pads but not wings.
Nymph 13-moulting
Adult.
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➢ Cockroach has no economic importance.
➢ They are pests → they spoil foods and contaiminate food by their
smelly excreta.
➢ They transmit bacterial disease by contaminating food materials.
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