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KOMPAS.com – Nature and evolution have endowed cockroaches with extraordinary survival abilities, so that these insects can live in a variety of conditions.
Uniquely, not all cockroaches also have wings. However, we often see cockroaches hovering on wings rather than flying like other winged insects. Why is this?
Researchers don’t know exactly why some cockroaches have wings and others don’t.
Winged cockroaches have two pairs of wings, one of which serves as a shield, and the second in some cases is used for flight.
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Also, not all cockroaches have the same wings. For example, a species from Central and South America called Megaloblatta blaberoides has the largest wingspan, almost 19 cm. Meanwhile, the Attaphila cockroach has a wingspan of 3.5 mm.
The ability of a cockroach to fly
Some types of cockroaches fly well. However, most cockroaches tend to use their wings only for gliding.
It is not clear why, but most cockroaches do not fly. It seems that the evolutionary advantage that led them to develop wings and fly no longer exists.
Regarding the ability of cockroaches to fly, launch ZME ScienceJessica Ware, an evolutionary biologist and entomologist, says cockroaches belong to a group of winged insects called winged insects, and they fly to disperse to new areas and avoid predators.
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The Pterygota group first appeared in the so-called Late Carboniferous, about 200 million years before the time of T. Rex.
According to one hypothesis, cockroaches (more precisely, “cockroaches”) evolved earlier than this, in the Devonian period, even before the earliest dinosaurs appeared.
So cockroaches are ancient creatures that have gone through a lot in their evolutionary history; have adapted and changed over the years. However, cockroaches are primitive insects with only a few special adaptations.
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In addition to the influence of evolution, there is another element that plays a role in the ability of cockroaches to fly, namely temperature. Ware explained that some species, such as the common American cockroach, only fly at higher temperatures.
Like all insects, cockroaches are cold-blooded, so they require external heat to function, and their activity level increases with temperature.
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