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Thorax porcellana

© Harshith JV

 

I had been with Jithesh to our usual haunts for macro photography. There we saw this cockroach with its babies(nymphs) on its back. Back then we did not know species and also about the unique behavior we were photographing. Its only after we saw Chinmay's post we realised the unique behavior of this species: www.facebook.com/Chinmay.c.maliye/posts/1678897468910783

 

This cockroach has no known common name but is spread across South India and Sri Lanka. What you are seeing here is the adult female cockroach carrying its nymphs on its back under the wings. There will be about 30-40 hatchlings. Also the other interesting fact is that these nymphs secret pinkish liquid between tergites of their mother’s abdomen. This liquid is like milk to the hatchlings. This kind of behavior is seen in some families of cockroaches across the globe and so not rare or unique. Yet intriguing nonetheless.

 

A well known late naturalist: Bhoopathy also had made observation on this species which you can read in Wikipedia page here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorax_porcellana. A recent description of a new frog species from the peculiar appearance: Nasikabtrachus bhupathi is christened in his honour.

 

Have a look at more photos here: www.inaturalist.org/observations/32360650

 

Common names: Cockroach (No common name available)

Scientific name: Thorax porcellana

Place: Bengaluru, Karnataka, India

Date: October 07, 2018

 

#fly #insect #cockroach #Thorax #porcellana #Insecta #Blaberidae #Blattodea #canon #80d #tarmon #90mm #macro #godox #tt685c #diffusion #diffuser

 

File name: IMG_7360.enhanced.upload.JPG

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Uploaded on April 16, 2020
Taken on October 7, 2018