Cockroach rising

Indian scientists are doing new research on an insect that is 320 million years old

Indian entomologists, scientists who specialise in the study of insects, are opening new lines of research into the origins and behaviour patterns of the cockroach, of which there are 4,600 species, their habitats ranging from freezing cold to tropical climes.

The word cockroach is derived from the Spanish ‘cucaracha’, which in 17th-century English became cockroach. The scientific name for the order is Blattaria from the Latin blatta, a light-shunning insect.

However, recent evidence indicates that a particular variant of the species in India is not only venturing out from its shady nooks and crannies and other hiding places, but is actively seeking not just light but the limelight of media publicity.  

Generally deemed to be a pestiferous nuisance by most right-thinking people, these insects are incredibly hardy and skilled in the art of survival, so much so that popular lore has it that the only species likely to outlive nuclear war, by being radiation-resistant, is the cockroach. 

In homage to its tenacity for existence in the face of all odds, including pesticides, swatting with slippers, nuclear Armageddon and all, pop star Madonna famously declared: “I am like a cockroach, you just can’t get rid of me.”

Cockroaches are highly social insects in that they seek out other members of their species, resulting in what is known as emergent or swarm behaviour, by which the collective develops skills of survival which are greater than the sum of its individual constituents through a consensual decision-making process. 

In 2007, cockroaches made their mark in the annals of space exploration when a Russian satellite carried a group of them into a twelve-day orbit around the Earth. 

On her return to terra firma, a female cockroach named Nadezhda, which means Hope in Russian, produced 33 baby cockroaches – which is on the higher side of the average number ranging between 14 and 40 – who grew faster, were more energetic, and could scuttle about more rapidly than their Earth-conceived counterparts. 

All of which goes to show that try as you might, there’s no Earthly way to keep a good cockroach down.