the.com/cockroach
the survivor that will outlive your house, your grudges, and probably the apocalypse itself
means a flat, fast, hardy insect of warm climates and human kitchens, infamous for thriving almost anywhere and resisting most attempts to be rid of it
from From Spanish 'cucaracha,' which English speakers in the early 1600s heard, mangled, and reshaped into something that sounded like familiar words: 'cock' (the rooster) plus 'roach' (a kind of fish). It made no sense — the bug is neither bird nor fish — but the ear preferred a recognizable pattern to an unfamiliar foreign one. The Spanish root itself is older and murkier, possibly tied to 'cuca,' a word for caterpillar or grub. So the name is a small linguistic survivor too: a foreign word that crawled into English and refused to leave.
- headless living
- survives a week without its head, dies of thirst
- ancient lineage
- scuttled the earth 300 million years before dinosaurs
- radiation tolerance
- endures doses that would kill a human instantly
- speed demon
- runs 50 body lengths per second, relatively faster than a cheetah
- milk maker
- one species produces crystallized milk four times richer than cow's
american cockroach — periplaneta americana, found on all continents, fastest insect at 3.4 mph
german cockroach — blattella germanica, most common household pest species worldwide
madagascar hissing cockroach — gromphadorhina portentosa, emits loud hissing sounds, popular as pets