Common Household Cockroach Periplaneta americana (Linnaeus, 1758)
Fauna Portal species: 519
Periplaneta americana female, dorsal (HBI N2539-1; Barrow Island, Western Australia)
Image: Alexander Greenhill (2025)
Fauna Portal Image No. 12992Diagnosis
(after Roth 1994): Periplaneta americana is similar to P. aboriginea. However, male P. americana lack a tergal gland on the first abdominal segment and its supraanal plate is membranous and differently shaped.
Status
- introduced
Australia
- Australian Capital Territory
- Christmas and Cocos (Keeling) Islands
- New South Wales
- Norfolk and Lord Howe Islands
- Northern Territory
- Queensland
- South Australia
- Tasmania
- Victoria
- Western Australia
Fauna Portal Records
The map shows all records that have been verified as part of the Fauna Portal project and may not represent the true distribution of a species. Specifically, for described species, check the link to the Atlas of Living Australia on this page for potential wider distributions. Fauna Portal Reference specimens and Linnean types are shown in red. If you identified a specimen that exceeds the distribution of an undescribed species as illustrated here, please contact the Fauna Portal team who can assist with the lodgement of the specimen in a public institution and display on the map.
Publications
(1994): New Queensland cockroaches of Macrocerca Hanitsch and Periplaneta Burmeister (Blattidae). Memoirs of the Queensland Museum. 35: 225 - 233