Cockroaches

                                                                                                             by arjun b     

     Cockroaches are one of the most successful animals on the planet. They have been around for three hundred and fifty million years. Cockroaches have been given a status of an almost magical animal. If you dropped a nuclear bomb on a cockroach it would die because that giant mushroom cloud of fire would vaporize it. When exposed to high levels of radiation they will die but not for a couple of days. Just clearing that up.

        Cockroaches are insects so they have 6 legs a head, a thorax, and an abdomen. The head contains the mouth the eyes the mouth, the atennae, and their brains despite what people say. Cockroaches have compound eyes similar to flies and their eyes are equally weak. They mainly use their atennae to sense their surroundings. They do not really use their brains because most of their nervous activity occurs throughout the body especially the butt. The thorax is where the wings are in males but normally not in females.  The three sets of legs that cockroaches have are also attached to the thorax. Each leg has 3 joints and are divided into 4 parts: The tarsus, the tibia, the femur, the trochanter and the coxa. The abdomen contains a tube heart pumping colorless blood. This is because it doesn't contain hemoglobin to carry blood.  Hemoglobin contains iron and that gives blood it red color. It stores its fat in its abdomen. And the digestive tract is in the abdomen. That's the roach.

  http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/cockroach-2.jpg&imgrefurl=http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach1.htm&usg=__P_OKzylXTziLMKN9BXvrfhSC5fs=&h=533&w=400&sz=29&hl=en&start=14&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=fZIcbSQDZJQgaM:&tbnh=132&tbnw=99&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dcockroach%2Blegs%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4HPND_enUS342US346%26sa%3DN%26um%3D1

      Cockroaches can survive some things that would easily kill a human. Some can go months without food. Which means those cockroaches can go months without heads although knowing where you're going is a useful thing. This is because If their cells aren't getting enough air they have these tubes that open and let air inside. Though they don't need that seeing that they can go up to 30 minutes without air and recover. There are over 4 thousand species of this amazing little bug.  Cockroaches live in every continent except for Antarctica. Cockroaches are tropical bugs but moved north and south after the invention of central heating. Most prefer hot warm climates with multiple food sources like your house. These sources of food will be anything seeing that they are omnivores but do not hunt. They prefer to scavenge and can get into your house through any holes. They will eat any type of food and will eat glue that stuff that makes pages stay in books, soap, leather, wood or even wiring in electronics and microwaves.

     Cockroaches prefer to stay in groups. One study suggests that cockroaches all kind of agree on one thing. Another suggests that a large group of cockroaches have collective intelligences. That means that they all communicate with each other but what they do is based on the accumulated decisions of individuals. This is very similar so that's probably where the controversey is from. 

Domain: Eukarya

Kingdom: Animalia

Phylum: Arthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Blattaria

Seeing that there are over four thousand different species of cockroaches therea are 6 families. Blaberidae, Blattellidae Blattidae,Cryptocercidae, Nocticolidae, Polyphagidae.

  Cockroaches  mate like normal bugs. Male cockroaches find mates excreting pheromones that will attcract mates. Then to mate with them they start by making noise  by rubbing things together and posing after that they mate. Not all species do this and some have females can fertilize themselves . After fertilization some females will create a egg sac and fill it with eggs then attach it to an object. Others attach the egg sac to themselves, and an even smaller few have eggs inside themselves like mammals. After hatching  baby cockroaches or nymphs are white. After awhile they harden and begin to look like adults without wings. Then they must mot several times before becoming adults.  Cockroaches are relatively large for bugs and can reach up to 6 inches long. Though they are unique they still mate like any other insect. 

     Cockroaches are being observed by engineers to get bioinspiration which means designing things based on organisms. Cockroaches have amazing running abilities. They can turn almost instantaneously have the ability to go over any terrain with ease And can dodge obstacles that were moved in front of them faster then a nerve impulse. This leads scientists to believe that cockroaches don't think about running. Running is more likely an instinctive reflex of there six legs in succession.

Bibliography 

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach1.htm

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach4.htm

http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach2.htmhttp://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach2.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cockroach

http://oregonstate.edu/ua/ncs/archives/2009/dec/cockroaches-offer-inspiration-running-robots 

http://www.uri.edu/ce/factsheets/prints/cockroaches.html