Allie Ward

Were you already aware?

So when Dominic observes these forest roaches in the field, he says that they get around essentially like an Olympic-level American ninja warrior.

They're just maneuvering deftly to evade him.

They're using speed, acrobatics, U-turns.

Now, if you've seen a cockroach, let's say a city roach, you may have noticed its giant amber colored wings, or maybe you've seen the smaller kind of crickety German roaches or a dark glossy one that might look wingless, but has nubbins for wings, kind of like the arms of a mighty T-Rex.

What do they do in there?

Wait, how do they use their wings for mating?

Now you may be thinking, surely another animal must partake in the golden shower of courtships.

And technically you are correct.

So in the 2023 paper, Flamin, Osteophagia, and Other Behaviors of Giraffes, Balmaro Nasal Organ Adaptation, the giraffe research team of doctors Lynette Hart and Benjamin Hart explain that males, this is a quote, males provoke females to urinate by sniffing and prodding them.

If the female is going to urinate, she first widens her hind leg stance and sets a stable posture and then urinates.

So this has been described by onlookers as gargling her sweet, sweet piss to figure out if she is the one and would be amenable to carrying his baby.

And yes, we need a giraffe episode because I really need to ask these doctors heart who are married what their deal is.

the giraffes, and also them.

But back to cockroaches enjoying a dinner date of crystal urine, which looks kind of like coarse coffee grounds or like little mouse droppings, but more romantic.

Now, is this because in rainforests, sodium is a premium?

Are they getting electrolytes from that?

That's so wild to me that part of what defines a cockroach is the endosymbionts.

Part of who you are is what you've got living with you, kind of.

Really?