Rescued attachment 81fighting-cancer23453415.jpg

They seem to be immune to everything else man can throw at them, apart from size 9's.

Apparently they're the only organic creature that is immune to RADIATION, or so I've heard (not joking).

not immune - id read that they are 100 times less sensitive to it

atb

steve

Any idea how fast these creatures can run?

the web can be a useful (and sad at times) thing, cos you can fin dinfo like this...


http://ufbir.ifas.ufl.edu/chap39.htm

extract.........


Results
I narrowed the field to three contenders for the fastest land insect: the American cockroach, Periplaneta americana, and two Australian tiger beetles, Cicindela hudsoni and C. eburneola (subgenus Rivacindela). Young (1998) named P. americana the current record holder with a maximum speed recorded at 1.5 m/s (3.4 mph). Full and Tu (1991) measured this speed using a specially designed pressure sensitive plate inserted into the roach's raceway. A computer recorded the pressure and time of each footfall, from the first footfall to the last, as the roach crossed the 10.7 cm plate. They also used high-speed cameras to measure time and movement over the set distance. Kamoun and Hogenhout (1996) reported that both C. hudsoni and C. eburneola were faster than P. americana, with maximum recorded speeds of 2.49 m/s (5.57 mph) and 1.86 m/s (4.16 mph).

http://www.thaibugs.com/Articles/roach.html

Fourth section down. There's some really amazing info on these creatures on several sites. It's a good job they don't grow a lot bigger or we'd be further down the food chain.

yep..... but I tried not to post more incase people thought I was getting too involved with the research - but what the heck!

The bit I liked - that gives hope to us all (if we were cockroaches anyway) is that the females prefer wimpier types rather than the strong types, as a male partner. Something to do with not liking rough sex from a stronger partner




atb

steve

quote:

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Originally posted by Peteff
http://www.thaibugs.com/Articles/roach.html

Fourth section down. There's some really amazing info on these creatures on several sites. It's a good job they don't grow a lot bigger or we'd be further down the food chain.

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In Durban where I once lived the roaches were huge and they breed like wildfire. When they walked you could hear them some of the bugs got to two inches or more . Durbs being sub tropical had some pretty big spiders that would push us down the food chain if they were bigger!
Not to forget the cane rat that was the size of a puppy. The `locals`sent their kids in to the cane fields to catch them and the barbequed the thing skin an all. It was ready to eat when the skin was slightly charred.............inyama stank! They used to fight over who got the eyeballs!!!!!

[Edited on 30-7-04 by mangogrooveworkshop]

leave the eyes in, it should see us through the week .
The old ones are the best eh!!