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Insects - Giant Hissing Cockroach

Insects - Giant Hissing Cockroach Well, according to these cockroach webpages, if you're going to keep roaches for pets, Madagascan Giant Hissing Cockroaches are the very best.

Madagascan Giant Hissing Roaches

Thank goodness--Madagascan Giant Hissing Roaches don't have wings. You would never have to worry about one of them flying into your hair. (You'd just have to worry about one crawling up your leg).

  1. What beneficial role do these roaches play in Madagascar?
  2. Male Madagascan roaches have prominent protrusions, called pronatal humps, on the thorax, which look like horns. What do they use them for?
  3. If there were 2 Madagascan roaches fighting, how could you quickly tell if they were male or female?
  4. What is the purpose of the ootheca?

 

Madagascan Giant Hissing Roaches

They're nocturnal.

  1. These roaches skip the larval stage of development. The eggs hatch into nymphs which closely resemble adults--only smaller. The roaches grow larger by molting which means they shed their exoskeletons. These roaches molt 6 times. After these roaches molt, what do they usually do with their exoskeletons?
  2. How do they hiss?
  3. As a defensive measure, these roaches sometimes tuck their small head and antennae under their thorax. How could this scare away a predator?

 

Madagascan Giant Hissing Roaches

You could keep these pets in an old, dry fish aquarium.

  1. If you keep one of these roaches as a pet, what would you feed him?
  2. How would you water him?
  3. If you are picking your roach up to bond with him, where on his body should you hold him?

 

Hissing Cockroaches

They undergo incomplete metamorphosis.

  1. This is an attractive photograph of a hissing cockroach. Write a paragraph about the things in a cockroach's life that would make it hiss (or in other words, what do you think might annoy a cockroach--the birthday cake crumbs cleaned up before he gets a taste?--a homeowner walking in the door with a grocery bag full of roach motels?--use your imagination!)

 

Teacher Resources

Encounter With An Unhuggable
Provides classroom ideas and activities to use with Madagascan Hissing Roaches. Also has a place where you can order them.

Madagascar Hissing Cockroach
A caresheet for roach pets.

Image is copyrighted by ArtToday. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Author: LINDA MOSBACKER - Email linda.mosbacker@slc.k12.ut.us