Hissing Cockroach

• reproducciónUnlike most insects it has no working wings, and it is one of the few cockroaches that bears live young rather than laying an external ootheca.
• comunicaciónIt can make an audible hiss by forcing air out through a specialised pair of spiracles on its abdomen, an unusual mechanism among insects.
• It hisses in a way unique among invertebrates: it does not rub body parts together but forces air out through a pair of modified abdominal spiracles. It is virtually the only insect that makes sound by breathing.
• Four distinct hisses have been identified: one for fights between males, two for courtship and one alarm hiss, long and snake-like, that startles predators.
• The female is ovoviviparous: she incubates the eggs inside her body and gives birth to live young, which is rare among insects.
• It has no wings, but it has pads and hooks on its feet that let it climb glass.
• The males carry two prominent bumps behind the head that people mistake for eyes; they use them to ram each other in fights over territory.

Skeleton type

Invertebrate - chitin exoskeleton (insect)

Habitat and environment

The floor of Madagascar's lowland rainforest, among dry leaf litter and rotting logs

Size at birth

The nymphs are born whitish and soft and harden their exoskeleton to dark brown within hours

Sexual maturity

Six nymphal moults to maturity, which is reached between five and seven months

Gestation / incubation

It is ovoviviparous: the female draws the egg case into an internal brood pouch and retains the eggs for about 60 days until they hatch inside it, at which point she gives birth to live nymphs

Litter / clutch size

30 to 60 live nymphs per birth

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gromphadorhina_portentosa; University of Kentucky Entomology, ficha Madagascar hissing cockroach; ScienceDirect (Hughes 1989); Science Advances, How colonial animals evolve; Wikipedia, Zooid; Britannica; Ficha de especie de Gromphadorhina portentosa; Animal Diversity Web; University of Kentucky Entomology; Oklahoma State University Extension; Fichas de biologia de Gromphadorhina portentosa

Best time: Active all year in the leaf litter and rotting trunks of the Madagascan forest; it is negatively phototactic and takes cover during the day

The pins mark the parks where its presence is documented.