I added one more small nymph to the collection of animals on week 2. I allowed it to live in the transfer canister that I use during cleaning. I didn't give it any stuff to eat or drink during its first week in the canister. After I week I found that it was still the same size around 2mm by 4mm. On the third week of capitivity I gave it one pellet at and small wet cotton pad. After 1 week of captivity it was 3mm wide and 5mm long. Unfortunately I wasn't able to take photos of these since the camera was being used in the field by my father.
When I added the new inmate to the hotel on the third week I got a new adult cockroach unfortunately its still a female cockroach. This time when I observed what they did as I added a new creature to the collection the roaches simply crowded together on one spot and groomed themselves I noticed that the first cockroach I got tried to nibble on the new adult roachs' leg. This is new behavior than last time when I added the nymph which was scuttling off the other side.
I also managed to spot the roach egg (ootheca) parasite at week 4. I saw three small flies trapped inside the holding cell. They probably laid eggs on the new ootheca inside the holding pen.
I'll wait for the eggs to hatch and rear them so that I can identity them.
Week 5 at the Roach Hotel: 3 Adults
During the mid week check up of the holding pen I noticed that I had 3 adults in the pen. There where bits of cockroach shells lying around. Apparently the nymph roach I caught was near its molting period and had molted during the week. The new adult roach didn't move around and
seemed quite flat missing bulk exterior it presented just last week. This wings seemed brown in shade rather than black.
Nymph at Week 4
New Adult Roach hanging by the side of the transfer canister. Small nymph on top of the rubbish at the mid right side of the holding pen.
I decided to start doing the anatomy of the cockroaches and looked for sites that provided information on roach anatomy.
I found an informative site in How Stuff Works (really quite surprising since I assumed this site dealt with man made machines not animals.) It described the divisions of the cockroach as divided into 3 major parts head, and thorax, abdomen.
Labeled Picture of my specimen. The front legs are also called Prothoraic Legs, the middle legs are called Mesothoraic Legs and the longest legs are called Metathoraic Legs.
Another site that I found quite useful was Insect Morphology and Anatomy it discussed that most insects follow the same general anatomical plan. This is shown in the illustration below
a b
(a) Image from http://www.earthlife.net/insects/images/anatomy/anatomy.gif (b) Image from http://animals.howstuffworks.com/insects/cockroach1.htm
So if followed this information provided in image (a) I would have general idea where the internal parts are going to be. It surprised me that just like us the cockroach has its own femur and tibia. The tarsus is its main climbing implement. When I look at this part of the cockroach I seem to think that there could be small hooks on its tip since I see that the roaches would move it into place when climbing up test its grip if it didn't grip to well they would move it out of the surface and try it on another place until it grips. If it doesn't grip anything they give up and move to another place to test.
The growing nymph is now 5 mm long and around 7mm long. It constantly manages to get over the petroleum jelly barrier.
Another observation that I made was that most of the pellets I placed in the holding cell ended up with mold on it. I think the roaches may be carrying mold spores so I have to test this theory out for the next week of observations.
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