“These two sequences of baby roaches hatching from their egg cases have to be some of the squirmiest bits of insect footage I’ve ever captured,” explains Ant Lab filmmaker and research biologist Dr. Adrian Smith.
But it’s also super fascinating: See cockroach nymphs emerge from their cockroach egg cases in this rare macro time-lapse footage.
Smith filmed two species: an American cockroach (Periplaneta americana) and a German cockroach (Blattella germanica). In both kinds of eggs, the wingless translucent nymphs are “packed in, shoulder-to-shoulder.”
“In the sequences I collected, about an hour before hatching the egg case starts quivering as the roaches squirm around inside. When they’ve wiggled enough, finally the keel breaks open and they all shimmy their way out.”
Watch more Ant Lab on YouTube, see clips on Adrian Smith’s Instagram, or watch more Ant Lab on TKSST.
Then watch these handpicked videos:
• The Sticky Feet of Ants & Cockroaches – Cambridge Ideas
• The Unseen Incredibleness of Mealworms
• Hatching stink bugs, a Macro Story time-lapse
• Ladybug, from an egg to first flight
• A critically-endangered Lord Howe Island Stick Insect hatching
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