INSECTS
RAINFOREST ADVENTURER
Insects are the biggest group of animals on the planet, in fact there are more insects than all the other animal groups combined. It includes a huge diversity of things from mayflies to ants, dragonflies to bees. Insects even include the world's most dangerous animal, the mosquito. They can transfer a nasty disease called malaria to humans.
Madagascan Hissing Cockroach
Scientific name: Gromphadorhina portentosa
Class: Insecta
Lifespan
Often only 2-3 years, up to 5 years in captivity. Some insects only live a day and some live a lot longer like the Periodical Cicadas that live a very long time and have life cycles that bring them out from under ground as adults every 13 - 17 years!
Distribution
Other insects are widespread over the globe and some single colonies can cover huge areas too, like the ants in Europe that cover over 6,000km.
Appearance
They are dark brown most of the time, but when they shed their exoskeleton they become a creamy white colour until their new bones harden. All insects have 6 legs and 3 body parts.
What do they eat?
Are they social?
Things to Know
Cockroaches have SUPERPOWERS!!! Some are super speedy fast enough to run through fire, some can hold their breath underwater for about 40 minutes, some can be frozen and come back to life and loads can even live without their heads because they have 2 brains!! American cockroaches are very fast but the fastest insect of all are the Australian tiger beetles.