Limited Appeal

In this episode's Nature Walk (with a dramatic echo), Warren describes a recent study of cockroaches (cool!) in which the studied shelter choice in cockroaches. (Ame et al., 2006, PNAS) Thanks for the science, folks! In their study, the authors released 50 cockroaches into a cage containing three enclosures that could contain 40 cockroaches each. The cockroaches split evenly to occupy two of the three shelters (25 in each shelter). When the shelters were enlarged to accommodate more than fifty, all the cockroaches moved into a single shelter (after some consultation and probing). Neat! Obviously this has big implications for collective decision making, but honestly we don't talk about those much. If you have suggestions for new B-movie screenplays involving giant insects, send them to us by email (maskedman@limitedappeal.net). Theme music courtesy of General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners and Ipecac Recordings.