The Terrifying, Horrifying, Super Gross Miracle of Life
January 20, 2017 9:42 PM   Subscribe

Very, very few insects are viviparous, meaning they give live birth. Among them is the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach. Thankfully (?), the entire process -- gross, but also pretty cool -- can be seen on youtube.
posted by Rinku (26 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
gross, but also pretty cool

This is pretty much every live birth. You want pretty you gotta go with eggs and that's still pretty nasty.
posted by Ogre Lawless at 9:45 PM on January 20, 2017 [4 favorites]


One semester in college one of my suitemates was abroad or sth (can't even remember), and a senior was placed in his room. We barely got to know the guy because he was always off in a lab, but what I remember is that he had many, many containers of hissing cockroaches in his room. Part of his research. Good times.
posted by Joseph Gurl at 9:54 PM on January 20, 2017 [2 favorites]


Wow, she's just opening the pod bay doors there at the beginning.
posted by little onion at 9:57 PM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


No no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no no
posted by hippybear at 10:03 PM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


ADORABLE!
posted by allthinky at 10:08 PM on January 20, 2017 [1 favorite]


Also, no one should have to give birth in a plastic tub, Brant.
posted by allthinky at 10:14 PM on January 20, 2017 [3 favorites]


Hurry up and install my gold curtains. I have work to do.
posted by flabdablet at 11:25 PM on January 20, 2017


It's like some kind of metaphor for something that I can't quite put my finger on.
posted by crunch42 at 12:04 AM on January 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


They just keep coming. It's the rift that keeps on riving.
posted by lucidium at 2:39 AM on January 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


A miracle but also a clown car.
posted by bonobothegreat at 4:03 AM on January 21, 2017 [5 favorites]


Madagascar cockroaches are in fact ovoviviparous. Their offspring still hatch from eggs, but this occurs inside the mother's brood sac. There are a few cockroach species that reproduce this way. There is only one truly viviparous cockroach, Diploptera punctata. Diploptera embryos are fed by 'milk' that is produced by the brood sac as they develop. There was recently some media attention for research that studied the composition of this 'milk', which is extremely protein-rich.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 5:25 AM on January 21, 2017 [8 favorites]




...yeah, okay. I need to go wash my hands now.
posted by 80 Cats in a Dog Suit at 6:06 AM on January 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


I like bugs. I even like the Madagascar hissing roaches, but this is still creepy.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 6:24 AM on January 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


When working late in my office in Kigali, Rwanda in the late 90s, you knew when the cockroaches came out of their hiding place because they were so big that you could hear them walking on the papers. The fact that most of these papers were statements of witnesses to the Genocide referring to "Inyenzi" (cockroach in Kinyarwanda) which was the derogatory term used by the genocidal forces to refer to the RPF but more generally to the Tutsis at large, was almost too weird.
So yeah, not clicking.
posted by Malingering Hector at 7:13 AM on January 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


Some cockroaches in Japan defend themselves by flying at you. No, thanks.
posted by My Dad at 8:33 AM on January 21, 2017


Damn nature, you nasty.
posted by 1adam12 at 9:54 AM on January 21, 2017


Fascinating/nauseating/viscerally captivating. I think I will go back to politics. Less intense.
posted by Oyéah at 9:58 AM on January 21, 2017


So they all come out attached to each other into some sort of rope and then separate? Like little kids on a walk with their daycare. Also, is there some sort of food that follows them out? Why do they all end up rushing back towards her? I thought only mammals nursed.
posted by If only I had a penguin... at 10:26 AM on January 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


It looks like some of them were either grooming, fighting, or eating each other? I'm gonna take a wild guess and say that they're eating the brood sac off of each other - the equivalent of mammals eating the placenta. also, why the fuck did i watch that
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 11:18 AM on January 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


gross, but also pretty cool

This is pretty much every live birth.


I wonder if this is a defense mechanism against predators.
posted by cazoo at 12:00 PM on January 21, 2017


I wonder if this is a defense mechanism against predators.

This video ( listed as "Up Next" ) would seem to suggest not.
posted by magstheaxe at 12:57 PM on January 21, 2017


They just keep coming. It's the rift that keeps on riving.

This comment needs more loving!
posted by Omnomnom at 2:29 PM on January 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


She was having contractions. A cockroach. By the end of the heaving and all the babies crawling back up at her, I just wanted to take her by her jabby, hairy little hand and guide her over to a bed in a matchbox with a tiny pillow and blankie.
posted by The Noble Goofy Elk at 2:46 PM on January 21, 2017 [4 favorites]


Fascinating. But all I could think was that it must have been very physically stressful to do that on a hard, slippy, light-ridden surface and the owners could have offered some nesting materials for her to grab at. Presumably this doesn't normally happen in open view because those babies look like a most delicious, fresh-from-the-oven treat for any and every passing predator.
posted by freya_lamb at 3:25 AM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]


Some cockroaches in Japan defend themselves by flying at you. No, thanks.

I don't mean to upset you, but I've encountered cockroaches like this in Indiana.
posted by ryanshepard at 4:58 PM on January 22, 2017


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