Madagascar hissing cockroach
Scientific name
Gromphadorhia portentosa
Size and weight
5 to 10 cm long
Diet
Rotten fruit, vegetation and detritus
Conservation status
Least concern
Native habitat
In rotting logs and leaf litter on the forest floors of Madagascar
Lifespan
2 to 5 years
Meet our Madagascar hissing cockroaches
Tilgate Zoo is home to lots of Madagascan hissing cockroaches. Their main enclosure if off-show, but they can regularly be spotted out with the Education Team, meeting school groups and the public and teaching them all about insects and how important they are.
Want to meet our fascinating cockroaches and learn more about them? Why not book onto our scales and shells experience on the link below.
About Madagascar hissing cockroaches
The Madagascar hissing cockroach is one of the largest species of cockroach in the world. Unusually for a cockroach, they don’t have wings. But they can hiss! They do this by forcing air through their bodies, mimicking a snake to scare off predators.
They are very helpful little creatures. They eat all kinds of organic stuff, from rotting plants to animal droppings – which helps return nutrients to the soil.
To grow they must shed their hard outer shells (called exoskeletons) and form a new, larger one. When they first shed, the new exoskeleton is bright white and soft, but they toughen up and darken over time.
Did you know?
they are excellent climbers and have spiky legs to help them climb trees. They can walk upside down while hanging from branches and can even scale smooth glass
- males have horns on the tops of their heads for fighting
there are over 4,000 species of cockroach and over 99 per cent are not pests and do a great job of helping look after the planet
in fights over territory, males make themselves as tall as they can and hiss, push and shove each other. The male that is larger and hisses more usually wins
