An older or alternative taxonomic grouping relating to cockroaches and their allies, now largely superseded by Blattodea.
From blattoid (cockroach-like) plus -ea, a taxonomic suffix. This represents an earlier classification system before modern phylogenetic methods reorganized insect taxonomy.
Scientific names keep changing as we learn more—blattoidea is basically obsolete now, replaced by Blattodea, showing how science self-corrects when we understand relationships better.
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