Allie Ward

And it's made of a bacterium, of a virus?

What exactly are those endosymbionts?

So a 2024 study titled Frequent and Asymmetric Cell Division in Endosymbiotic Bacteria of Cockroaches.

described that these bladobacteria, which can help digest that extra uric acid too, divide at really frequent and in wonky ways and have been with cockroaches for over 140 million years.

So they have a good thing going.

And if you're wondering, by the way, why people call cockroaches palmetto bugs, that's because there's a wood cockroach.

It lives down in Florida, southeast United States.

They love palmetto trees.

And sometimes, yeah, one might wander into people's houses.

And it's just easier for people to call all roaches palmetto bugs because denial is a very effective drug.

What about their behavior?

Do they tend to be nocturnal?

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

What are some of the prettiest?

I know there's a domino roach, which is so cute and looks so much like the beetle that it mimics.

What are some other just stunners?

I mean, Melarodia magnifica, which mimics blister beetles with this cherry red head and a metallic green body.

Are you shitting me?

Polysosteria michelli, you blue and yellow armored beauty.