These roaches form exclusive long-term relationships after eating each other’s wings : NPR
A new paper in the journal Royal Society Open Science describes evidence that the wood-feeding cockroach Salganea taiwanensis may engage in a behavior known as pair bonding. Haruka Osaki hide caption toggle caption Haruka Osaki When you think of two individuals coupling up to raise and protect a family together, you might think of people or birds. But probably not cockroaches. And yet, in a paper published in Royal Society Open Science, a trio of researchers presents evidence that suggests that Salganea taiwanensis, a kind of wood-feeding cockroach, may engage in what’s known as pair bonding. That “just means that two individual organisms will spend an extended period of time with each other and will exclude other individuals from the bond,” says Nate Lo, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Sydney and an author of the new study. “The two individuals know that the other member has their back.” Pair bonding comes with numerous benefits, including grooming, the joint defense of nest and offspring, and the sharing of food. It requires enough brain power …
