If you’ve ever gotten up for a midnight snack and flicked on the kitchen light only to discover an army of shiny brown insects zipping beneath your fridge, then you already know the German cockroach. Despite their name, German cockroaches now inhabit every continent except Antarctica. In fact, scientists consider the species, Blattella germanica, to be the most prevalent of the 4,600 cockroach species on Earth. Which is surprising, given that the animals were basically unknown in Europe until Swedish biologist Carl Linnaeus first described them in 1767. That and the fact that they have no close relatives there, nor does the species exist in the wild.

Source: The North Africa Journal May 21, 2024 12:36 UTC