MY ENVIRONMENT

By Dr Anina Lee

We have all encountered cockroaches

of some sort. It's hard to miss them as there are more than 4 500 species of cockroach in the world. Many of them haunt human habitation, where there is plenty of food lying around.

Giant roaches crawl out of Cape Town sewers, scuttle across kitchen floors and lurk in cupboards. They will eat anything, so don't stand still for too long.

Besides these household pests, which are mainly foreign invaders, there are large numbers of ‘wild’ cockroaches native to South Africa. One of my favourites is the Table Mountain cockroach (Aptera fusca).

If you walk anywhere in the fynbos, whether it be in the Fernkloof mountains or on the Cliff Path, they are there unseen, lurking under bark or under stones and other dark, dank places. They come out at night and scavenge on anything dead or rotting.

But not always. A female has been spotted on the Cliff Path, feasting on a plant (Blombos) that was very much alive.

Being relatively large, (they belong to the family of giant cockroaches) they make quite an impression if spotted during the day. You are most likely to see a female – a large brown insect with bright yellow margins to the segmented body. She is somewhat unusual for a female insect as she has no wings. The males are smaller and have brown wings. They somewhat resemble the ordinary household roach, so you are less likely to notice them.

The mountain cockroach has a very effective way of deterring potential predators. I made the mistake once of interfering with a lovely lady to photograph her better before she scuttled off into the undergrowth. I should not have. She made a loud squeaking noise (by rubbing the roughened edge of one segment of the abdomen against the surface of the next segment) and secreted a brown fluid from her back that stained my hand with indelible brown ‘ink’ that took days to wash off.

Not only did it leave a stain but also a distinctive ‘cockroach’ odour. The secretion comes from special glands called ‘repugnatorial glands’ – very aptly named. So it's wise to look, but not to touch.

Click below to read more. (The full article can be found on page 18)