Eek! 3 New Giant Cockroach Species Found

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This image shows the back and front of Pseudophoraspis recurvata, one of the newly described species. (Image credit: Zongqing Wang)

Cockroaches have been crawling on the planet since before the time of the dinosaurs, and today there are more than 4,500 species known to science. Researchers are adding three more to that list.

Though they fall into the giant cockroach family (Blaberidae) these newly found, yellow-bodied creatures are small compared with some of their cousins — they grow just a little more than an inch (3 centimeters) in length in adulthood, compared with Blaberus giganteus, for example, which can reach lengths of 4 inches (10 cm).

"We found three new species from China, located in Hainan, Yunnan and Guangxi Provinces respectively, which extends the range of the genus Pseudophoraspis northward," entomologist Zongqing Wang, of China's Southwest University, said in a statement.

The new species — which are named Pseudophoraspis clavellata, Pseudophoraspis recurvata and Pseudophoraspis incurvata — were described online this week in the journal ZooKeys.

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Live Science Staff
Live Science Staff
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