By Susan Milius
SNOWBIRD, UTAH — A flirty little hiss for a guy could mean a male hissing cockroach is going to be quite popular with the ladies too.
And he’s likely to have lots of kids.
In a lab test, some 20 percent of male giant hissing roaches went romantic when they met another male, says David Logue of the University of Lethbridge in Canada. Males can’t actually mate, but flirtatious Gromphadorhina portentosa males, some outweighing a mouse, hissed gently and made the thrusting gestures of courtship among male roachkind.