Cockroaches are incredibly successful at coexisting with humans, even though we are less than thrilled with the prospect of sharing our homes with them. Amongst their many remarkable survival tactics, Don Mullins describes their ability to reproduce, by laying eggs in a protective case called an ootheca, as `spectacular'. Some species abandon the ootheca soon after laying their eggs, but female German cockroaches carry the ootheca until the young hatch almost one month later. How liquid penetrates the apparently solid surface of the ootheca has puzzled scientists for well over a century, but Mullins has finally discovered the microscopic pore structures that keep oothecae hydrated (p. 2987).
Female German cockroaches fall somewhere between the two extremes on the cockroach parental-care spectrum. Having laid their eggs in the protective ootheca, they carry the case close to their abdomens, until the young are ready to hatch. However, without a constant...
