Thorax porcellana Saussure is a species of epilamprid cockroach occurring in Sri Lanka and India.

The Indian entomologist S. Bhoopathy confirmed in 1998 that this ovoviviparous species carries some 30-40 hatchling nymphs for their first two instars in a special recess under the domed forewings on the dorsum of the mother.

They also use their relatively long, sharp, mandibular tooth-like processes to pierce the mother’s cuticle and feed directly on her haemolymph.

The upper surface of her abdomen became markedly depressed into a fairly tight spacious trough or chamber with its sides raised.

Parental care among cockroaches, where offspring are fed on bodily secretions, is not rare, and has been recorded in Perisphaerus, Trichoblatta, Pseudophoraspis, Phlebonotus, Gromphadorhina, Solganea, Cryptocercus and Blattella, whereas biparental care is found only in wood-eating cockroaches - wood is low in nutrients and is made assimilable by micro-organisms in the adult gut.