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Forest cockroaches are insects with a soft, sleek and flat body, long antennae and spiny legs. They have two pairs of wings. The forewings are leathery and the hind wings membranous. The wings of male forest cockroaches are as long as the abdomen or even a little longer and allow them to fly sufficiently well. In contrast, the females are unable to fly because the wings are short. At the rear tip of the abdomen a pair of wing stumps can be seen.

 

Two native species of forest cockroaches occur in Estonia: the dusky cockroach (Ectobius lapponicus) and the forest or lesser cockroach (Ectobius sylvestris). In order to determine the species, the dark patch on the front part of the cockroach’s back should be examined. The back edge of this patch of a dusky cockroach has rounded corners, that of the lesser cockroach acute angles.

 

Forest cockroaches feed on plant remains. They reproduce with incomplete metamorphosis, which means that when hatched from the egg, the nymphs look like the imagos. A particular trait is that the female cockroach carries the eggs that she has laid along with her for some time in an egg pouch, or ootheca, located in the rear tip of the abdomen.