Romance functions differently once you view it outside the human experience. Where we wine and dine at each other as a part of an elaborate and expensive mating ritual, Salganea taiwanensis, aka wood-feeding cockroaches, put their own twist on courtship: they consummate their monogamous relationship by eating each other’s wings.
Researchers publishing their findings in Royal Society Open Science found that this wing-eating ritual, which both cockroach lovers engage in, is a part of a disgusting but ultimately meaningful bonding ritual. After shacking up, a male and female nibble at each other’s wings and then settle down together to build a nest and raise offspring.
In a way, it is a little romantic. There’s a symbolism to it. They don’t need to fly away anymore to find a mate. They’re eating each other’s wings off to settle down and plant some roots. It’s disgusting and scary, but nice.
Monogamous Cockroaches Consummate Their Love By Eating Each Other’s Wings
But then the researchers said that the process likely prevents either partner from flying off to pursue another mate, so it’s more like chaining your lover in the basement to make sure they don’t cheat on you. Forget I said anything about romance.
The scientists were surprised by the behavior because a pair bonding like this is pretty rare among insects. Though it is easy to see why they do it. They do it for the same reason we do: shared resources, cooperative parenting, a higher chance of reproductive success, and a shared Netflix login. The only question the scientists really had was whether this was a temporary or permanent partnership.
To test this, researchers introduced unfamiliar cockroaches into established pairs, creating the scientific version of Temptation Island. Some of the pairs had already completed the wing-eating ritual, while others were still in the earlier stage of their relationship, before any appendages were sacrificed.
They found that pairs that had already eaten each other’s wings reacted aggressively to the intruders. They confronted them, roughed them up a little bit, and made it clear that they’re in a committed long-term relationship that means a lot more than some fling with a hussy. Pairs that hadn’t yet performed the wing-eating ritual didn’t show nearly as much hostility toward outsiders.
The established partners never attacked each other, and none of the roaches switched mates when the opportunity arose. The selective aggression suggests the insects can distinguish their partner from other adults of the same species, another ability rarely seen in invertebrates. Overall, this marks the first experimental evidence of this kind of mate recognition and partner-specific aggression in invertebrates.
It also means there are cockroaches in this world more loyal than some human spouses.
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