Bug FAQTrinidad bat-cave roach
Eublaberus distanti · Order: Blattodea · Family: Blaberidae
Also called: Four-spot Roach
The Trinidad bat-cave roach grows to about 6.4 cm long, with females larger than males and both sexes having wings they cannot use for flight. It lives in dry, guano-rich cave areas but can also be found in rotting wood, leaf litter, epiphytes, and tree hollows that house bats. The roach is a scavenger that feeds on animal and plant material, especially fresh guano dropped by bats at night.
Source: Wikipedia
How to recognize it
Nymphs turn dark brown and display six yellow spots along their sides, giving them the name “six-spotted cockroach”. Adults of both sexes have wings but do not fly.
Source: Wikipedia
Size
Males are generally smaller than females and have longer wings and a smaller rear sternite.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it lives
They prefer relatively dry, guano-rich sections of caves but are also found in rotting logs, decaying litter, epiphytes, and bat-filled tree hollows. Caves with abundant guano can host very large populations of this species.
Source: Wikipedia
What it eats
It is a scavenger that eats any animal or vegetable matter it can find. At night it waits buried in guano and emerges when insectivorous bats return, feeding on fresh guano droppings.
Source: Wikipedia
Life cycle
A single cave chamber once held more than 43,000 individuals.
Source: Wikipedia
Where it is found in the US
Recorded in 2 of 51 states and DC. Most records: Arizona, South Carolina.
Darker = more records. Counts are museum and citizen-science records, not population size.
Source: GBIF
More photos
Questions people ask
How can I identify the nymphs?
Nymphs are dark brown with six yellow spots along each side, which is why they are called six-spotted cockroaches.
Source: Wikipedia
Where are these roaches usually found?
They are most common in dry, guano-rich parts of caves but may also appear in rotting wood, leaf litter, epiphytes, and bat-filled tree hollows.
Source: Wikipedia
What do they eat?
They scavenge on any animal or plant material and especially feed on fresh bat guano that falls at night.
Source: Wikipedia
Same family (Blaberidae)
Sources
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eublaberus_distanti
Look it up elsewhere: GBIF · iNaturalist · BugGuide · Wikipedia
Text written 2026-10-24 from the sources above and checked sentence by sentence against them. Data fetched 2026-10-23.