A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia (original) (raw)

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This title is no longer available in a print edition

Cockroaches! Even a mere mention of the word causes many people to recoil in horror. However, of the hundreds of species of cockroaches (or blattodeans as they are known) found in Australia, only a small number of them give the group a bad name. Just a few species that are commonly found in homes, restaurants and hospitals are responsible for thousands of dollars in expenditure to comply with health standards.

A Guide to the Cockroaches of Australia is a comprehensive account of most of the 550 described species found in Australia. The book reveals their diversity and beauty, it looks in detail at their morphology, habitats and ecology, and explains how to collect and preserve them. Importantly, it will allow pest controllers, students and researchers to reliably identify most of the common pest species as well as the non-pest cockroaches. It will also, perhaps, go some way towards elevating the reputation of these much-maligned insects, and promote further study of them.

Listen to an interview with author David Rentz titled 'Just how dirty are cockroaches?' on ABC North QLD.

Listen to an interview with author David Rentz titled 'Cockroaches are a harder sell than the 2014 budget?' on Radio National – Bush Telegraph.

Reviews

"This eminently readable and well produced book will for long be the single most indispensable foundation source of information on this remarkable fauna to naturalists of all persuasions"
Tim R. New, Journal of Insect Conservation, August 2014

"Cockroaches will appeal to entomologists, wildlife researchers, bushwalkers and field naturalists, but I would also recommend it to anyone who is curious to learn a little more about this ancient order of fascinating insects."
Martyn Robinson, Explore, 37(1)

"If you haven’t noticed native cockroach taxa, then it is time you did, and no excuses – you now have the perfect resource to guide you"
Nick Porch, The Victorian Naturalist 132 (4), 2015, pp. 121-122

Details

ePDF | May 2014
ISBN: 9781486300372
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers

ePUB | May 2014
ISBN: 9781486300389
Publisher: CSIRO Publishing
Available from eRetailers

Features

• High quality photographs of most commonly encountered species
• Illustrated keys allow users to make a reasonable identification of known species or direct them to the relevant literature to do so
• Provides a guide to collection, preservation and storage of cockroach specimens for future study
• Outlines techniques of wing preservation and genitalic dissection, so critically important in reliable cockroach identification

Contents

Preface Acknowledgements

1 Introduction
2 Cockroach 'personalities'
3 Biology
4 Economic Importance
5 Australian cockroaches in captivity (by Deanna Henderson)
6 Collection and Preservation
7 Habitats and ecology
8 Morphology
9 Cockroach identification

View the full table of contents (PDF).

Authors

David Rentz AM specialises in katydids, crickets and other members of the suborder Ensifera. He spent 25 years as Curator of Orthopteroid Insects in the Australian National Insect Collection, Canberra. David is currently an Adjunct Professor at James Cook University and an Honorary Fellow of the California Academy of Sciences. He is the author of A Guide to the Katydids of Australia, which won a Whitley Award commendation for best field guide, and in 2011 he and his colleague Dr Darryl Gwynne were awarded an Ig-Nobel Prize for their study ‘Beetles on the Bottle’. David was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 2013.