Why the cockroach is one of nature’s survivors
There are rather more than Four thousand species of cockroach, with Thirty of those species associated with human habitations, and four said to be pests.
Common kinds of pest cockroach are the american, German, Asian and Oriental species. The cockroach belongs to the order ‘Blatteria ‘, and is a traditional insect – cockroach-like species have been on the Earth for over 295 million years.
Cockroaches tend to have flat bodies and little heads. They’re known as generalised insects, with few express modifications, and in reality are quite primitive. Physically tricky, they have four wings, with the top 2 acting as a shield for the more frail lower pair. They also have compound eyes, and flexible antennae.
A cockroach’s fatal dose of radiation could be as much as Fifteen times higher than ours ( though this isn’t much bigger than that of another insect ). This is because the effect of radiation are rather worse during cell-division, and cockroach cells divide relatively rarely, when it changes its skin ( once every week, at most, for juveniles ). Human cells are consistently changing and dividing, making us more subject to radiation.
Cockroaches are indeed extremely tough insects. They may be able to survive on minimal food for at least a month, and need little in the way of nourishment. They’re also in a position to go without air for extended periods, and some experiments have seen cockroaches recover, after spending as long as half an hour submerged in water. These facts may reveal why the roach is sometimes referred to as indestructible.
In terms of behavior, the cockroach displays a mix of competitive and co-operative tendencies. Individuals will leave scent trails to steer others to food or shelter, and swarms of cockroaches have been observed to show group decision-making abilities.
Where resources like shelter are limited, they are known to manage the situation dependent on their numbers – splitting a group between different shelters, in order to accommodate all members, for instance.
