[url]http://www.wavy.com/dpps/news/strange_news/new-cockroach-found-in-popular-s-africa-reserve-ob11-jgr_3827469[/url]
[quote]
JOHANNESBURG (AP) - Some scientists peer into ocean depths and explore jungles in search of new species. South African scientist Mike Picker made his discovery — a new species of cockroach — in the middle of a top tourist destination.
Cape Town's Table Mountain National Park is home to the world's only jumping cockroach, which this week was named one of the top 10 species discoveries of the year by an international panel of experts.
In a telephone interview Thursday, Picker, a co-author of the Field Guide to Insects of South Africa and a zoology professor at the University of Cape Town, said his discovery shows how little is known about the world's insects and other animals.
Picker's cockroach is joined on the list by a mushroom that glows in the dark and another that blooms underwater, a spider that weaves giant webs, bacteria found on the remains of the Titanic, a fish found in Gulf of Mexico waters affected by the 2010 oil spill, a leech with enormous teeth, a cricket that pollinates a rare orchid, a giant, fruit-eating lizard, and a small antelope from West Africa.
Saltoblattella montistabularis — saltoblattella is Latin for "jumping cockroach" and montistabularis refers to Table Mountain — is a delicate creature just a centimeter (less than a third of an inch) long with powerful hind legs and bulging eyes. It could endear itself even to those who recoil at the thought of a household cockroach.
"It is quite a neat-looking thing. And they're not clumsy," Picker said. "It's quite athletic, I must say."
Picker and a student were using a net to sweep the grass in search of flies for a pollination study when they came across the cockroach in 2009. They worked with other scientists on a 2010 paper establishing the cockroach was unique.
Scientists say of the 4,000-5,000 cockroach species, Saltoblattella montistabularis is the only one that jumps.
Table Mountain draws more than 4 million tourist visits every year, and the Silvermine area where the cockroach was found is just a 10-minute drive from central Cape Town.
Picker cautions amateur scientists who might want to join in the search for new species that Table Mountain is a protected area, and plants and animals can't be removed from it without permission. Picker said tourists are welcome to send him photos if they think they've stumbled on something new.
"It seems that there's lots of exciting undiscovered insects and other animals in the Cape," he said.
Quentin Wheeler, whose International Institute for Species Exploration at Arizona State University oversees compiling the annual list of discovered confirmed in the previous year, says some 10 million species are waiting to be described, named and classified.
"Most people do not realize just how incomplete our knowledge of Earth's species is," Wheeler said in a statement. "We are surrounded by such an exuberance of species diversity that we too often take it for granted."[/quote]
Ewewewewewewewew. Kill it now.
No don't kill it, those bastards are just as important as everyone else.
[QUOTE=Swilly;30072263]No don't kill it, those bastards are just as important as everyone else.[/QUOTE]
how
[QUOTE=KingKombat;30072290]how[/QUOTE]
I don't know but they are!
Cockroaches that jump? No thanks.
[QUOTE=BANNED USER;30072338]Cockroaches that jump? No thanks.[/QUOTE]
I have spiders in my room that jump. :ohdear:
So what? The fuckers here fly around and hit you in the face every time you try and spray the shit out of them.
Jumping cockroach is best cockroach.
It's ok, if the bugs get out of hand we can always nuke them
[b]Oh wait...[/b]
They're evolving :byodood:
As long as that shit stays way over there I'm fine.
I have an arachnophobic level fear of roaches, going so far as to be scared of the word itself. Probably because when I was in my mother's womb she lived in a bug-ridden house and would run around screaming "OH GOD ROACHES EVERYWHERE".
[QUOTE=Funky Pickle;30073591][b][u]arachnophobic[/u][/b] level fear of [b][u]roaches[/u][/b][/QUOTE]
Uhh... because arachnophobic implies massive fear right?
Still, never seen a cockroach before. This thing sounds creepy.
[QUOTE=Fatman55;30072346]I have spiders in my room that jump. :ohdear:[/QUOTE]
Yeah but jumping spiders are cute.
[img]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2523/jumpingspidermostbeuati.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;30073653]Yeah but jumping spiders are cute.
[img]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2523/jumpingspidermostbeuati.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
Until they jump on your fucking face.
Jumping spiders chase laser pointers like mini-kittens.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;30073653]Yeah but jumping spiders are cute.
[img]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2523/jumpingspidermostbeuati.jpg[/img][/QUOTE]
That truly is nightmare inducing, especially because I have arachnophobia. I'm probably going to think I'm seeing that evil shit everywhere now. :smith:
[QUOTE=XanKriegor;30073669]Jumping spiders chase laser pointers like mini-kittens.[/QUOTE]
Did that with one once. The funny thing is that unlike my cats, the spider caught on and realized "Fuck it I can't eat this shit" and left the dot alone after that.
Even 4 minutes later when I shined the dot near it again it spun around like "AHA- Oh, it's that thing again" and wandered off.
cockroaches are cunt insects
I would of called them chazwazzers.
[QUOTE=Zero-Point;30073653]Yeah but jumping spiders are cute.
[IMG]http://img197.imageshack.us/img197/2523/jumpingspidermostbeuati.jpg[/IMG][/QUOTE]
Oh no, those are NOT what live in my room.
[img]http://www.duke.edu/~jspippen/arachnids/wolf-spider071021-2284jones.coz.jpg[/img]
[QUOTE=HazmatSquad;30074091][img]http://images.wikia.com/non-aliencreatures/images/8/86/Radroach.png[/img][/QUOTE]
OH fuck, if they ever find a cockroach the size of a radroach, I am killing myself.
There's 4000-5000 different cockroach species, I think that's quite a lot but I don't know. What I do know is that there's a whole lot of these things and that they are some tough sons of bitches.
So hey, at least we don't have the worry about cockroaches going extinct. Why is it that only the beautiful and great animals run dry?
[QUOTE=Gekkosan;30078807]There's 4000-5000 different cockroach species, I think that's quite a lot but I don't know. What I do know is that there's a whole lot of these things and that they are some tough sons of bitches.
So hey, at least we don't have the worry about cockroaches going extinct. Why is it that only the beautiful and great animals run dry?[/QUOTE]
People kill them for sport or fashion. Or just to keep their skills sharp!
[QUOTE=Edthefirst;30072359]So what? The fuckers here fly around and hit you in the face every time you try and spray the shit out of them.[/QUOTE]
THIS. Also they don't die with a shoe swat either...
[QUOTE=sHiBaN;30079138]THIS. Also they don't die with a shoe swat either...[/QUOTE]
You cant even nuke them since they would survive the fallout.
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