giant cockroach

Many naturalists might be familiar with the pest species, but will probably also know the lovely diurnal Ellipsidion--such as that in the image which graces the book's cover--and blaberids such as the giant burrowing cockroach (Macropanesthia rhinoceros), wood cockroaches (Panesthiinae) encountered in rotting logs, and trilobite cockroaches (Laxta species) often abundant under bark of eucalypts and superficially resembling isopods (slaters).

Our results are consistent with the status of the blaberids as a highly derived cockroach family with distinctive life-history modifications, including retention of oothecae until hatching.