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 & environment

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

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gromphadorhina_portentosa