'Extinct' wood-eating cockroach rediscovered after 80 years1 October 2022A unique cockroach reappears in Australia after more than 80 yearsShareThe Lord Howe Island Wood-feeding cockroach - long thought to be extinct on the main island - has been rediscovered at the foot of a single Banyan tree.“I mean, I lifted the first rock under this huge banyan tree, and there it was.”“We found families of them, all under this one banyan,” said Senior Scientist Nicholas Carlile of the NSW Department of Planning and Environment (DPE), who was with Adams exploring North Bay, a secluded white, sandy beach only accessible by foot or water.“In fact, Maxim and Nathan were there for the rest of the week, looked under every other banyan in North Bay, but didn’t find anything.”The unique Lord Howe Island wood-feeding cockroach (Panesthia lata), once widespread across the archipelago, was thought to have become extinct following the arrival of rats on the island in 1918.“We are hoping to study their habitat, behaviours, and genetics and learn more about how they managed to survive, through further experiments on the island.”The wingless cockroach is 22-40 mm long, with a metallic body colour that varies from reddish to black.Australia hosts 11 species of Panesthia wood cockroaches, powerful burrowers that live inside and feed on rotten logs in rainforest and open forest in coastal northern and eastern Australia."