Order - BLATTODEA
(Greek, blatta = an insect that shuns light)
Common Name: cockroaches
Distribution: Cosmopolitan

Description
Cockroaches are familiar to most people for their flattened appearance, and scurrying motion. Winged forms all have parchment-like forewings, and all roaches normally have the  head concealed by the pronotum (the top of the first thoracic segment). Although this order is diverse in the tropics, it is a small group in North America and most people will encounter  only a few domestic species like the winged Australian roach illustrated here. The wingless roach shown here is a nymph of a native wood roach.