George Beccaloni, Author,    The Natural History Museum, London David C. Eades, Database Developer,    Illinois Natural History Survey     With the cooperation of The Orthopterists' Society

Periplaneta americana

Ectobius lapponicus

The Blattodea Species File (BSF) is a taxonomic database of the scientific names of the world's cockroaches (order Blattodea or Blattaria), excluding fossil species and the termites. Note that until recently the termites were treated as a separate order, Isoptera, but recent work confirms that they are a lineage of cockroaches. The BSF has full synonymic information for about 4,560 valid cockroach species and it currently contains a total of approximately 6,420 scientific names (all ranks, valid and not valid). In the future we aim to include (amongst other things) images of specimens in museums (especially types), plus pictures of living cockroaches in the wild and in captivity.

To see information contained in the database, use the links across the top of the page.  Click on Search to find a specific taxon or other kinds of information.  Clicking on Taxa will make the order Blattodea your current taxon unless you have previously moved to a different taxon in this session.

This website and database use Species File Software.  Information about the design and use of SFS may be found on a separate website.

Other Places to Start

• Table of contents
• Help for new users
• Introduction to the BSF
• Links to other websites
• About the author
• Duplicate database to practice editing

Please send comments and questions about the database and its development to George Beccaloni (send mail).  When referencing this website, please use the following format:  Beccaloni, G. W. 2007. Blattodea Species File Online. Version 1.2/3.3. World Wide Web electronic publication. <http://Blattodea.SpeciesFile.org> [accessed 20 May 2008*].  * Please give the precise date you used the BSF.  Use http://Blattodea.SpeciesFile.org to bookmark this website.