Cockroaches belong to order blattodea and sometime it is also called as Blattaria. These are winged insects found around the world everywhere. Cockroaches are the most primitive insect and highly successful adopters. From 4600 total species of cockroaches 30 are most important in relation to human beings but the four species are very important as pest i.e. American cockroaches, German cockroaches, Australian cockroaches and the Oriental cockroaches. The name of cockroaches originates from the Spanish word cucaracha originally used for the wood lice.
Cockroaches are found in an infested and un sanitary conditions. Life of cockroaches is divided into three stages egg, nymph and adult stage. The eggs are present in egg case which is in bean size and shape and contains 12 to 20 eggs. Sometime female cockroaches carry their eggs until just before the hatching of eggs, while on the other hand some females hide their eggs in protected area where pests can’t reaches. After the hatching of eggs nymphs are emerged just like the adults they are similar but wingless and small in size.
Cockroaches hides during the day time and active at night while if you observe the day time movement of cockroaches it mean there is heavy infestation. During the day time cockroaches protect them self in cracks and crevices for rest and to avoid the sunlight. Cockroaches prefer to eat the starchy food and meats they also eat anything of plant or animal.
A cockroach can live for weeks without head. Bio chemist and Physiologist Joseph Kunkel from University of Massachusetts Amherst whose study is on development of cockroaches explain how it is possible. Cockroaches do not have the blood pressure just like the mammals they have open circulatory system. So in case of head removing the wound is clot by the blood and uncontrolled bleeding is stopped. Cockroaches also have the ability to slow down the heart rate without any harm and sometime stopped.
Mammals breathe through the mouth and nose and that function is controlled by the brain while in case of cockroaches breathing is done by the help of spiracles present in each body segment. These spiracle are directly attached with the tracheae the spiracles pipes the air directly to every tissue of the body. So cockroaches do not depends on the mouth to breath.
As a cold blooded organism cockroaches need much less food to survive. Different experiments showed that cockroaches can live for month without food in sealed jar. Interesting thing is that cockroaches die without head, because without head it cannot drink water. So cockroaches are most effective adopters of the planet and they can survive in world wars.
About Authors:
Shahmshad Ahmed Khan, Humairah Hanif
