Scientists Figure Out How — and Why — This Cockroach Glows in the Dark
- Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:20pm by
Liz Klimas
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This cockroach is not your everyday insect to scurry out from under the refrigerator or one that elicits startled shrieks when you turn on the bathroom light. In fact, you wouldn’t have to even turn on your light to see this one coming.
Lucihormetica luckae glows in the dark due to bateriain crevices in its back. (Image: Vršanský et al., Naturwissenschaften via Discover Magazine)
It’s a South American cockroach, Lucihormetica luckae, that Discover Magazine reports was recently studied by scientists for its ability to glow in an effort to explain how bioluminescence began on land (it is more common in marine mammals).
In studying the bio-luminescent qualities of terrestrial organisms, the researchers restricted their study to 13 species of luminescent cockroaches and found the “photo-characteristics” of three of them mimic that of a toxic click beetle.
Similar in concept to the non-toxic Viceroy butterfly, which mimic’s the look of the toxic Monarch butterfly, this cockroach mimics the same effect of a toxic click beetle so it does not get eaten.
“These observations are the evidence for the mimicry by light—a new type of defensive, Batesian and interordinal mimicry,” the researchers write in the study abstract. “Our analysis surprisingly reveals an evolutionary novelty of all living luminescent insects, while in the sea (and possibly in the soil) luminescence is present also phylogenetically in very primitive organisms.”
Discover Magazine explains that the back of the cockroach is full of “pits inhabited by microbes.”
New Scientist reports Peter Vršanský, a palaeobiologist at the Slovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava, as saying that with this evidence alluding to a more modern emergence of terrestrial animals to bioluminescence, most likely from one ancestor, it “suggests they are extremely rare and vulnerable to extinction.”
Science Magazine reports habitat destruction could be a greater threat than predators though — one that it‘s glow won’t have any effect upon:
The only known specimen of the insect was collected in 1939 on the slopes of Ecuador’s Tungurahua volcano, and the site was damaged when the peak erupted in December 2010.
For a bit of fun, io9 thinks a Star Wars character may be borrowing from the cockroach’s look. It calls the comparison between the cockroach and jawas (pictured below) “uncanny…right down to the little bandolier.”
Jawas (Image via io9)
(H/T: Daily Mail)
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Comments (46)
Deckle
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 12:20pmSo now Obama is going to tell us we can’t kill roaches!
Report Post »Oraclevoiceofreason
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:56ammore vulnerable to extinction ???? good. If God doesn’t need that bug anymore it will go extinct.
Report Post »The Other Watcher
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:54amI had know idea that Obama glowed in the dark, but it doesn’t surprise me.
Report Post »Chromo200
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 3:59pmFunny …
Report Post »Mandolin44
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:46amIts amazing, a million years of evolution is but a twinkle in God’s eyes, yet it took God 6 days to create the heavens and the earth and all that is in it…just shows you no matter what issue and theory proffered, it will never really be a legitimate argument against Gods Wonderful Creations.
Report Post »jsweetman
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:05amThat makes it easyer to step on them at night.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 9:11amA roach that glows in the dark and has weird eye-like patterns on its back…?
KILL IT! KILL IT WITH VIOLENCE!
Report Post »handsmcml
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:06amNo! We need to introduce that gene into American cockroaches. That way we will know where they are and then we can kill them.
Report Post »Chuck Stein
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 4:08pm@ Handsmcml
Report Post »Exactly. Reminds me of a story from a few years ago — rattlesnake hunters are killing the loud-rattling snakes (because they can detect those most easily), thus effectively breeding quieter ones. Even “rattlesnakes” with no rattles at all. No a good development.
Chromo200
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 7:34amIf you have these in your home don‘t brag don’t tell any one .. EPA will take you to court to stop you from killing them and fine you for for the heck of it. Oh and if you live in NYC Bloomberg will make you feel like a murderer for even of thinking of killing them.
SAVE THE COCKROACH … ABORT (KILL) MORE BABIES
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 7:25am“they are extremely rare and vulnerable to extinction.” Yep, if they’re in my house they sure are.
Report Post »JohnLarson
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 7:00amScientists??!!
Contards don‘t take kindly to there them book learnin’… why would The Blaze post this?
Report Post »hifi74
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:56amWow you are remarkably ignorant and unlearned yourself aren’t you? You make a wild unfounded accusation based off of your own ignorance (self inflicted or otherwise) and expect to be taken any more seriously then the handful of bleeding heart liberals that come here spewing their inane stupidity across out screens. Next time try coming to the argument with something better then that 2nd grade crap and trying to pass it off as logical discourse. Because seriously trying to pass off this idiotic supposition that conservatives are stupid unlearned people is about as stupid as trying to say Obama is saving this country money. It;s inherently wrong and just outright stupid.
Report Post »bullcrapbuster
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 6:32amThe athiests will tell us that this all happens by chance. A cockroach lighting up like a toxic beetle so as to decieve a predator? God not needed here,the cockroach figured it out by itself.
Report Post »ICanComment
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 7:47amYeah, it’s funny how these things just happen.
So if I understand correctly, at some point, by pure chance one of the roaches mutated and possessed bio-luminescence. No wait, it wasn’t pure chance. I just happened to mimic another completely different species that doesn’t get eaten due to its toxicity. By chance. Now, how do know that the toxic click beetle even possessed bio-luminescence at that point on the hypothetical timeline? How do we know that all of its predators knew enough to avoid it at that same time? Start rolling the permutations and things become very complex very quickly.
You know what? If you believe in evolution, that’s fine by me, but as a scientist (and a few other things) myself, when I start weighing the mathematics of this demonstrably and prodigiously unlikely happenstance, believing the whole concept requires a lot of faith on my part. Remember, before you start bashing me as being hateful or whatever, I respect people with opposing views. Let the troll fest begin.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 9:30amAn atheist would not tell you it happens by chance. Because NOTHING happens by chance. There is no such thing as pure chaos, there is no such thing as randomness, there is no such thing as happenstance. Everything, since the beginning of time, has had a cause and effect. Those who truly understand concepts like evolution know that it is not driven by chance. Fundamentalist Christians who claim that is it driven by chance are either liars or show they have no actual understanding of evolution.
The fundamentalist Christians who do not understand evolution further expose their ignorance in often employing two logical fallacies when attacking the theory*, these being the false dichotomy and god-in-the-gaps fallacy.
The false dichotomy is that if evolution is wrong, then a Genesis-based creation myth must be correct. This is simply not the case. One idea being incorrect does not automatically make an other idea more valid. Even if evolution were shown to be wrong (and it would take a great deal of extraordinary evidence to do so) the Genesis-based creation myth would need its own evidence to support it.
God-in-the-gaps is simply that, you cannot explain something, so you attribute it to god. Don’t know why a roach glows? Must be because god did it.
*(before you further expose your ignorance by saying “It’s just a theory,” educate yourself on what a scientific theory is…http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_theory)
Report Post »The Jewish Avenger
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 10:14am@Bruse P.
Sorry but after (paraphrasing) “Christians are stupid”
All I heard was Bwa bwa bwa bwa bwa
Come to the table with respect and maybe I’ll listen to your argument.
BTW I didn’t know that atheists were purely scientific blind faithers as well.
I feel your statement is vague and a bad attempt to put everyone in one convienent category.
SOME FORM of “evoltion” may and is occuring. The “IDEA” that bacteria have an ability to control multiorganism beings (Such as hydrophobia for the rabies virus) is an interesting HYPOTHESIS. But to say, “look at the rabies virus, therefore, there was no God” is ignorant and insulting.
Report Post »Quixotic-911
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 12:47pmRandom chance and happenstance are a description of our own ignorance not the phenomenon at hand. I don’t know by what mechanism it came into being but I do know God designed it all. It‘s not because of the things I don’t understand, but because of the things I do understand, that I know God made it. All atheists are deceived into believing that the material universe made the mind, when it was mind that created the material universe.
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 26, 2012 at 7:47amJEWISH AVENGER — Nowhere did I say Christians are stupid. I used very specific caveats. However, you needed to twist what I wrote, so that you could dismiss it without thought.
Nor does anyone say “evolution is right, therefore no god.” Evolution is neutral on the existence of god. It gives no weight to the existence of god, either for or again. It is only the fundamentalist Christian who says such things.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 6:21amDid a firefly rape a cockroach? Or was it the other way around. At any rate, they’re trying to Mimic (…remember that film? ) a toxic beetle, maybe so the ‘kids’ could survive. Miracles unfolding everywhere.
“…a million points of light.”
Report Post »Bruce P.
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 9:10amNo, because we all know that pregnancy is rare in cases of rape.
Report Post »Bobby P
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 5:29amI don’t care how close they are to extinction, I’ll still step on one if I see it.
Report Post »Kaoscontrol
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 2:49amCome to think of it, our president has been known to light up a ROACH on numerous occasions…maybe these are his creation, left over from his “choom gang” days.
Report Post »JACKTHETOAD
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 6:24am‘Bratislava, won’t you take me by the hand…’
Report Post »Kaoscontrol
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 2:39amGod must roll his eyes and laugh when these stupid scientists try to explain the wonders of His creation just appeared through “evolution”.
Report Post »ZaphodsPlanet
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 2:10amGlow in the dark? Cool, makes them easy to find and smash into oblivion with the lights off. I wonder if their guts also glow, or it’s just the shell.
Report Post »WeDontNeedNoSteenkinBadges12
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 1:46am“Our analysis surprisingly reveals an evolutionary novelty of all living luminescent insects”
Only problem is … there is no such thing as evolution. Back to square One, boys …
Report Post »LakewoodEd
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 1:40amI thought it looked like EVA from WALL-E.
Report Post »Teaparty-grammy
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 1:01amI do not care if they glow in the dark or not–the extinction of ANY cockroach can only be a good thing! Would that ALL of them were so “endangered!” We have these big flying ones here that live in the woods around our house–they come flying in when you open the door–especially at night when they gather around windows and doors because of the light, and like to roost on the ceiling. EWWWW! I squash everyone of these I can catch–they are about 3 inches long!
Report Post »Melika
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 8:49amI got chased around by one of those SOBs. They are scarey bugs, I don’t care what anyone says.
Report Post »KyleD
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 12:50amJawas area actually based on rodents. You never see them without their cloaks but it’s stated in the Star Wars lore.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 12:42amNewsflash, Detroit Judge clears courtroom…defendant had live bedbugs crawling on him….eeewwwwwww
Report Post »Wool-Free Vision
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 12:26amWow, I agree with io9. The resemblance is uncanny! And hilarious. Who designed the jawa? Was it Lucas himself, or one of the make-up fx specialists? I would love to hear their response to this. I am inexplicably fascinated by this similarity.
Report Post »KangarooJack
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:49pmBut, they’re cute!!!!?
Report Post »awakeningiscoming
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:36pmHa! My husband and I immediately thought “Jawa” at the picture of the bug..then scrolled down to see the pic of a Jawa was already posted! Funny
Report Post »elkslayer
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:34pmLets import them so we can save on our carbon foot print.
Report Post »Russian
Posted on August 24, 2012 at 11:27pmIf only we could inject democrats with this bioluminescence, then we would know where to direct Orkin!!
Report Post »Twobyfour
Posted on August 25, 2012 at 6:23amThey could function, in lieu of their carbon footprint, as nighly illuminators of poorly lit streets. That way, they may become finally useful to society, at least in some capacity.
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