Common Cockroach
Common Cockroach
Invertebrate
A famously unfussy, adaptable insect whose real toughness is myth-busting — not surviving bombs, but surviving almost anything else.
💡 Fun Facts
- Despite the famous story, a cockroach could not survive a nuclear blast — it handles more radiation than we can, but it is actually one of the least radiation-proof insects.
- Its real superpower is being unfussy: it eats almost any scrap of food and can go about a month without a meal.
- It can even live for around a week without its head, breathing through tiny holes along its body, until it finally dries out.
Name Story
Blatta orientalis
means “The 'light-shunning insect' 'from the east'.”
What does its name mean?
- Blatta — a cockroach — an insect that shuns the lightLatin blatta
- orientalis — eastern / of the eastLatin oriens 'the east'
Blatta is the Latin word for a cockroach that hides from the light, and orientalis means 'of the east' — together, the 'eastern light-shunning insect'.