Author(s): David Rentz

Animals

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.

• 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