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Species Blaberus craniifer - Death's Head Cockroach

Classification

Kingdom Animalia (Animals)

Phylum Arthropoda (Arthropods)

Subphylum Hexapoda (Hexapods)

Class Insecta (Insects)

Order Blattodea (Cockroaches and Termites)

Superfamily Blaberoidea

Family Blaberidae (Ovoviviparous Cockroaches)

Genus Blaberus

Species craniifer (Death's Head Cockroach)

Synonyms and other taxonomic changes

Blaberus craniifer (Burmeister, 1838)(1)

Blaberus aequalis (Walker, 1868)

Blaberus atropos (Guérin-Méneville, 1857)

Blaberus ferruginea (Saussure, 1864)

Blaberus limbata (Burmeister, 1838)

Blaberus luctuosa (Stål, 1855)

Blaberus quadrifera (Walker, 1868)

Blaberus trapezoideus (Burmeister, 1838)

Blaberus varians (Serville, 1838)

Explanation of Names

"Cranii", Latin for "of the head", and "fer", meaning "carry" or "carrier".

Size

7+ cm

Identification

The largest cockroach in North America.

Adult: Very large. Tegmina black, occasionally with brown markings near the center. Pronotum spot with distinctive "death's head" face.

Nymph: Difficult to distinguish from other Blaberus when young. Overall color a pale brown with multiple yellow-ish spots on the abdomen and thorax.

Range

Florida.(1)

Food

Omnivorous.

Works Cited

1.	Beccaloni G.W. (2007‒2023) Cockroach species file

Contributed by Kyle Kandilian on 4 July, 2014 - 3:03pm

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