Cave Cockroaches

Thanks to Charlotte Coales (my  Natural History Museum colleague) for pointing this one out.

Charlotte and I are doing Nature Live this Friday on Cockroaches: From the Beginning (sadly without my perennial sidekick David Nicholson).

In the News: Stick insects survive one million years without sex

From BBC News: Stick insects survive one million years without sex

Stick insects have lived for one million years without sex, genetic research has revealed.
Scientists in Canada investigated the DNA of Timema stick insects, which live in shrubland around the west coast of the US. 

They traced the ancient lineages of two species to reveal the insects' lengthy history of asexual reproduction. 

The discovery could help researchers understand how life without sex is possible.

Read More

Coming soon: Museum of Life

A documentary about the Natural History Museum, London: Museum of Life.

Well worth a watch, I imagine.

New cricket species filmed pollinating orchids

Read the story (and get a better version of the video) at BBC News: New cricket species filmed pollinating orchids.

Scaly Cricket in Devon, UK

The Scaly Cricket has been found on the Devon beach where the MSC Napoli was deliberately beached. It seems that they are attracted to traps baited with Cornish pasties.

See the BBC article here.

Blattodea Culture Group

This weekend saw the return of the Blattodea Culture Group to London, with a well attended meeting at the Natural History Museum.

There were four talks/presentations:

Collecting cockroaches in Madagascar (by George Beccaloni)
A film clip of Adrian Durkin's recent appearance on BBC1
An introduction to the new BCG website (by me)
Collecting cockroaches in Borneo (by Phil Bragg)

There was also a livestock exchange, with a number of interesting species changing hands.