Saturday, February 26, 2011

Simandoa Cockroach

It is funny how things go sometimes isn't it? I say this because recently I made a new friend on facebook. This man goes by the name of Piotr Naskrecki. He is an accomplished entomologist, author and photographer. In fact I have one of his books "The Smaller Majority" that is full of his wonderful photography. It is one of my favorite books and truly one of the inspirations of my own photography. I hope to one day take photos as great as his images. 

Through this new friendship; I discovered  he had mentioned on his facebook page that he had a species of cockroach that he would be willing to share with his friends and followers in order to keep the species alive for future generations. I simply cannot resist the opportunity to own unique and wonderful insects and cockroaches have long been a favorite of mine. I currently own 4 species and one subspecies of cockroaches and the chance to own another was more than I could stand. I quickly responded to his comment and expressed not only interest in owning these beautiful roaches, but my excitement at the prospect. He graciously wrote me back and assured me that roaches would be on their way to me within the week. True to his word they arrived the following week. 

I did a little research on this particular species and very little is to be found on the internet beyond what Dr. Naskrecki  has written himself. I researched the area where they are from and found some interesting data, but still very little in reference to insect life. They are from Guinea, West Africa and reside in caves located in the mountainous area of Pic de Fon. Many of the caves are being mined for iron ore, much more mining is scheduled to begin before the year 2015 which puts these and many other creatures at risk to loss of habitat and perhaps displacement or even extinction.

This Guinea area was biologically one of the richest and perhaps the most endangered terrestrial regions on the planet. Over 70% of the original forest is gone due to human encroachment mostly due to agriculture and mining. The few areas that are left are a biodiversity dream. There are many habitat types including Savannas, lowland forest, rainforest, montane and gallery forest as well as endangered West African Montane grassland. The area of Pic de Fon is in comparison to other areas in this region relatively untouched, but with the scheduled mining that is due to take place that will soon change exponentially. Change is inevitable, but often unfortunate. Many habitats suffer greatly as well as the creatures that call them home. For many years this area was considered safe from human development because of its isolated location, but this has changed over recent years and is now faced with threats that range from agriculture, poaching, logging, uncontrolled bush fires, road development to human population growth. With very little law enforcement in the area the threats increase, and control over these activities is hard to manage. Now with the added threat of mining the area seems destined to follow the way of so many other areas like this; eden to wasteland.

Simandoa Cockroaches live in the cave(s) scheduled to be mined, and very little is know about them other than they are a recent discovery and now threatened by extinction. Do they occur in other caves in the area? Do they occur in other habitats or are they restricted to caves? If the destruction of their habitat continues, how will these and many other questions be answered? How sad to be discovered, and subsequently faced with extinction in a very short time span. For now it appears that this species is strictly from a particular cave in this region and with the current mining operations will likely be imperiled if not completely destroyed. They inhabit the mouth of the cave where light is still present, therefore they do not exhibit any of the typical characteristics of most cave inhabitants. They do not lack pigment, and they have full sized eyes and normal wings. They are being classified in the family Blaberidae with many other species of roaches. They live in bat guano, but I could not find information stating if it is the bat guano they feed on, consequently breaking down the waste of bats into nutrient rich substrate on the floor of the cave, or if they feed on other substances that are perhaps attracted to the guano or growing on the guano. With the lack of guano at my disposal they are eating carrots and seem to like them just fine. Dr. Naskrecki is feeding their colony carrots as well and recommended I do so as well. I commend the efforts of people like Dr. Naskrecki who have the foresight to capture these insects to prevent the dying out of a species. All too often plants, animals and invertebrates are destroyed before we fully understand their place in the environment, what if these roaches carry the cure for some rare disease, or answers to biological problems within their genes? Now we have a chance to learn from them and enjoy them as a species. 

My small colony of Simandoa's arrived in the mail Wednesday. I was in Kansas City attending a week long workshop where my husband called me and told me I had a package. I knew what it was and asked him to bring the box when  he came down to dinner. I simply could not wait until Friday to open the box and see them. Thursday morning I took them to the workshop with me as I did not want to leave them in the hotel room for fear the maid would accidentally knock them over or open them. At the workshop one of the gentlemen in attendance wanted to photograph one, I took one out and posed it on my hand and he snapped the photo, what he didn't know was that I thought one of the nymphs had fallen on the floor when I took the adult out for the photo. I told the woman next to me and her and I looked but did not see one so I thought perhaps I imagined it. An hour later we had a guest speaker, and approximately 30 minutes into his talk I felt something tickle my knee (underneath my pants) and I was pretty sure it wasn't the guy sitting next to me. I felt my knee but could not feel anything beneath the fabric. I thought again I must be imagining things, and perhaps I had bugs on the brain. Perhaps another 30 minutes went by, and our lecturer was still talking and interacting with our group when I felt something tickle my thigh. I looked and I could see the perfect outline of a roach through my pants. I nearly laughed out loud. I poked the woman next to me and pointed to my leg....she saw the outline and whispered "is that what I think it is?" I shook my head yes, she almost started laughing too. I told her I needed to go to the bathroom and take care of this little problem. So I quietly exited the room and once I got to the bathroom, dropped my pants and fished out the roach; it once again hit the floor. I spent 5 minutes chasing the fast little bugger all over the bathroom before finally catching it. When I left the bathroom my friend and cohort had brought the container to me so I could safely ensconce him once again. Her and I laughed and mentioned it was a darn good thing it didn't crawl up anyone elses pants. I couldn't help but get a mental image of someone in the room with this errant cockroach climbing their pant leg and the mass panic that would have ensued. I nearly busted a gut at the image it presented. Fortunately nothing so dramatic happened and they are now safe at home in a ten gallon aquarium with a tight fitting lid so we do not have anymore accidental escapes. Life is never dull around here, and thankfully so.

Resources:
http://www.jstor.org/pss/3503709
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simandou

13 comments:

  1. As cockroaches go they are a handsome species. I was completely unaware of the escapades that ensued from simply asking to take a photograph! :) I would be interested in hearing more about the species as their history unfolds.

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  2. isn't it funny how we view cockroaches, considering they are only one of many species of insects, yet they conjure up all sorts of nasty stories and send shivers down peoples spines... there is a bug zoo in Victoria (british columbia) that has several very large varieties and the oohhhs and awwws combined with EWWW GROSS was as entertaining to hear as the insects were to view!

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  3. Oh Sherry. You were laughing at ME for "releasing" a mouse and now look at you, bringing a box of cockroaches to an event and accidentally almost losing one of them in the crowd. I think your story tops mine. One of these days we'll have to meet. I'll bring the mice, you can just surprise me. Ha ha ha.

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  4. I did it again. Did I just call you Sherry? Jeez. Well, I have another comment for you anyway. My starling is out of her cage this morning and is sitting on top of my computer trying to catch the butterfly in your banner.

    Enjoyed the laugh this morning, SheLLy.

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  5. Scott it was so darn funny! Her and I searched all over the floor as quietly as we could and did not find a sign of a roach. I seriously thought I imagined it. When that outline of the roach showed up I nearly cracked up. I seriously do not know how I kept from laughing out loud. Life with insects is always interesting.

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  6. Oh Garlic I know exactly what you mean. People have long feared many types of insects, but roaches are tight there at the top of list. It is the small, fast, house and apartment invaders that have earned all roaches a bad name. With a small minority of roaches invading our spaces and contaminating our food and carrying with them the potential to spread diseases it is easy to see where the fear and loathing came from. It is hard to convince people that not all roaches are bad however and many of them provide services such as breaking down organic matter and turning it to nutrient rich material that improves the quality of soil.It seems the bigger the roach though, the more fear it instills.

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  7. Maria think nothing of it....I get called Sherry, Shirley and various other names....its all good :o)
    I think the reason your mouse story struck me so funny is that I could SO SEE ME doing the same exact thing. I love that you turned that mouse loose. I once found a little white-footed mouse and thought it was way too cute too kill so I put it in an aquarium and gave it to my daughter as a pet. She kept it for quite awhile before it finally died. I would love the chance to meet you and share funny stories.....just let me know when and where.

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  8. SheLLy-That will be fun! But it probably won't be for months because I'm thinking the weather will continue to be crazy. Today---torrential sleet/rain, floods, hail, thunder, lightning and in a couple hours....snow. I talked to a friend in St Joe earlier today and he said the weather was uneventful up there. Huh? I thought you guys got a double dose of anything that happens down here in KC. Anyway, I'm looking forward to meeting for lunch or something in the upcoming months. I probably won't be able to meet the crayfish babies but no doubt, you'll have a nursery of an interesting something else by then. :-)

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  9. We should plan something for April or May when the weather finally starts straightening out. I could meet you in KC somewhere, maybe a picnic in the park? Right now our weather is sunny and cool. Last night we had a little rain and some lightning and thunder. My daughter made the comment that it was weird to see lightning and hear thunder when there is snow still on the ground. Sometimes we get weather that is way worse than KC, like last Thursday when the snow hit, we got 7 inches up here. Then there are times you guys in KC get hammered and we don't get a thing. It is really odd that we can be an hour apart and have such extreme differences in our weather.

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  10. Wonderful picture, although I'm not sure I'd be as calm as you were with a roach crawling around inside your pants. I appreciate the little critters, but prefer them outside of my clothing. ;)

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  11. Thanks Denine, I was just so relieved to have it found and that it didn't go up anyone else's leg that I didn't have time to think that I should have been freaked out. Plus the whole thing struck me so funny. I must say though, I do agree I prefer them out of my pants rather than in them...LOL

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  12. How many of them did you receive, Shelly -- just one adult and one immature? A possible mating pair?
    I'm surprised Piotr's colony survives on carrots alone, since in its cave environs, the food resource would seem to be much more nutritious. Maybe add a chunk of dog or cat kibble for nutritional balance?

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  13. James, he sent me two adults and about a dozen nymphs. I hope there are at least a mixture of the two sexes. I agree that I thought it surprising they can exist on carrots given their natural habitat. I give monkey chow to my other species of roaches, so I put a few chunks of that in there with them just in case they needed protein. They sure devour those carrots though.

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