280 days of Urbpandemonium #94
Forgive the blurry picture. I'd have discarded it but how often will I get a shot of an outdoor-living cockroach carrying her ootheca* in broad daylight? Well it wasn't so much broad daylight as underneath the picnic table that was hosting that day's AAZK meeting. Since we were all zookeepers numb to the sight of cockroaches, we didn't have the typical panic that many people do seeing this harmless little creature. Indoor cockroaches become pests because they are social animals (not eusocial insects with different castes performing different tasks, but animals that like to congregate together for other reasons). If you see one German cockroach, chances are there are dozens or hundreds more in hiding, breeding in cracks and feeding on your stuff. With this species, the spotted Mediterranean cockroach Ectobius pallidus** (I tend to just call them ectobius roaches), they prefer a solitary existence. If you find one ectobius roach in your house, well it just blew in, and it would rather not be there anyway.
* "egg case"
** "Pale one who lives outside"