Breathing for Cockroaches

I have taken the advice of the other peeps in my group that Ricky and Sticky like warm, humid environments. Therefore, I put a little bit of water in their box, and I stuck their box on the heater vent in my room. When I came back from an activity, they were both up and moving around a lot around the box- more than I had ever seen.

Previously I had noticed that their abdomens contracted and expanded at regular intervals, which I assumed to be breathing. It turns out that I was right- it is a form of breathing; however, I decided to look up a little bit more about the whole breathing process for the cockroaches when I heard a little *squeak* sound coming from them when they exhaled (similar to the one our noses make when they are a little stuffed). Here is what I discovered:

"Q21: Ajay writes:
Could You please let me know how do cockroaches breath?

A: Ajay,
Cockroaches, like all insects, breathe through a system of tubes called tracheae, a word similar to the name of the tube leading to our lungs. The tracheae of insects are attached to the spiracles which are small valved openings on the side of each body segment, excluding the head. Thus the cockroach can breathe without its head! The valves open when the CO₂ level in the insect rises to an unacceptable level; then the CO₂ diffuses out of the tracheae to the outside and fresh oxygen diffuses in. The tracheal system brings the air directly to cells because they branch continually like a tree until their finest divisions tracheoles are associated with each cell allowing gaseous oxygen to disolve in the cytoplasm lying across the fine cuticle lining of the tracheole. CO₂ diffuses out of the cell into the tracheole.

Most insects do not have muscular lungs and thus do not actively breathe in the vertebrate lung manner. However in some very large insects the diffusion process may not be sufficient to provide oxygen at the necessary rate and body musculature may contract rhythmically to forceably move air out and in the spiracles and one can actually call this breathing. This might be associated with such activities as the energetic flight of the migratory locust."

info from: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/cockroach_faq.html#Q21

A music update: Sticky (the more active, brown colored one) appears to be a little upset with loud noises. He raises and inflates his abdomen when loud music is playing. Sticky (the less active, golden colored one) mostly just hides out in the egg carton.