Giant Cockroaches Over Jakarta

[MrRING]

Scientists discover world's biggest cockroach in Indonesian jungles

JAKARTA (AFP) - The world's biggest cockroach was among a rich and exotic menagerie of new species discovered by scientists exploring caves deep inside Indonesia's teeming jungles, expedition organisers said. Dozens of previously unknown types of fish, insect, snail and plant were found in a limestone cavern system in the remote East Kalimantan region of Indonesian Borneo, said Scott Stanley of ecologists Nature Conservancy.

Stanley, Kalimantan program manager for the US-based group, said more rare species were awaiting discovery in a vast area of limestone cliffs, caves and waterfalls on Borneo, but he warned their existence was under threat. "We admit the world's largest cockroach isn't exactly charismatic, but it's representative of a niche in the ecosystem and if you take that out you get a domino effect that could have a catastrophic effect on the whole food chain.

"If something is not done soon to protect these areas, dozens of species could disappear before anyone knew they ever existed," he said. The five-week expedition, which ended in September, saw scientists take helicopters over soaring limestone peaks, scale huge cliffs and dangle from ropes to encounter scuttling creatures including the monster cockroach, a giant millipede and a micro-crab.

"Everyone was flabbergasted by the biodiversity we found out there," Stanley said. "Almost every insect we picked out were new species." Scientists from six nations including Britain, France, Indonesia and Venezuela took part in the expedition to the Sangkulirang peninsula, a 9,000 hectare (22,230 acre) limestone forest which is home to a huge number of endemic species.

"Sangkulirang appears to have some of the most diverse cave species on Earth," said Louis DeHarveng, an entomologist of the French Academy of Science. Stanley said the new finds emphasized the need to halt activities such as illegal logging, which have seen the disappearance of vast swathes of Indonesia's jungle over the past few decades. An area almost the size of Belgium is lost to unauthorised felling every year in Indonesia, driving many species to the brink of extinction. "The team's discovery of such a wide variety of plants and animals, and particularly the high number of rare species found nowhere else on Earth, shows the critical need to protect this area from the growing threats of logging, mining and fire," Stanley said.

Nature Conservancy, which is mainly concerned with protecting endangered orangutans in the region's lowland jungles, says it hopes to organize further trips to the Kalimantan limestone forest, depending on funding.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...20041223/sc_afp/scienceindonesia.041223171020

 

[boynamedsue]

Suddenly less keen on biodiversity <shudders>.

 

[ramonmercado]

And here's how cockroaches defend themselves against becoming Zombies.

Cockroaches use karate kicks to avoid becoming zombies
By Frankie SchembriOct. 31, 2018 , 1:30 PM

If you’re looking to avoid becoming one of the living dead this Halloween, you might want to take a page out of the cockroach survival guide. Researchers wanted to see whether roaches had developed any specific defense mechanisms to ward off emerald jewel wasps, whose stings can paralyze roaches, turning them first into a zombie egg vessel, then food for wasp larvae. Using ultra–slow-speed videography, the scientists spotted the cockroaches delivering karate kicks with their spiny back legs to the heads of wasps getting into stinging position, The Atlantic reports. Of the adult cockroaches that attempted the roundhouse maneuver, 63% were successful in getting the wasp to buzz off towards an easier target, the researchers report today in Brain, Behavior and Evolution.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2018/10/cockroaches-use-karate-kicks-avoid-becoming-zombies