Ectobiid cockroach (Chorisoneura sp.)

I am designating the cockroach as the #SaniProject2017 official mascot (much to the chagrin of my partners), (I am looking into t-shirts being made :))

 

And herein we come to the crux of the matter.

 

At a glance, I could be mistaken for a cockroach fetishist, or at least a Blattodean sympathizer with all these photos and posts. And of course it's always easy to jest and treat with levity subjects that are either perceived as trivial or unpleasant.

 

However, the cockroach is a subject chosen with care and foresight as one of the first organisms to really be showcased by the #SaniProject2017. They represent beauty through understanding. They represent diversity. They represent what is underfoot, and what passes as invisible but which contributes in manifold and literally, untold ways. They represent the 99% of organisms which make up the rainforest ecosystem, and which are beholden to the 1% of the so-called banner species. And finally, maybe, they will come to represent disgust, confined to our own ignorance and intolerance.

 

So you can celebrate a diversity in all its forms, or else you can champion poverty through ignorance.

 

Ask yourself, "what to you is the cockroach underfoot?"

------------------------------------------------------------------------

Ask. Observe. Question.

Always

The #SaniProject2017 - An exploration into the beauty of biodiversity

Follow us at Destination Ecuador #Paulbertner #Sanilodge

 

Thanks to Gil Wizen for the ID.

Done