The Bohart Museum of Entomology on the UC Davis campus, houses three of the world’s largest cockroaches: the Death Head (Blaberus cranifer), collected from a bat roost in Panama; Peppered or Peruvian Cockroach (Archimandrita tesselata) from Peru; and Madagascar hissing cockroaches (Gromphadorhina portentosa) from Madagascar.
Bohart Museum scientists have maintained terrariums of Madagascar hissing cockroaches for some 30 years. At any given time, the museum has hundreds of them. It’s the most popular display among the kids, because of three reasons: the hissing sound they make, their size and their appearance.
More about cockroaches from the Smithsonian National Zoo.
Photo: Kathy Keatley Garvey
