A thin band of light from Cristian Lucanas’ headlamp pierced the blackness of a Philippine rainforest as he dug through the underbrush before gently scooping up a cockroach with his bare hands.
As the Southeast Asian country’s lone expert on the oft-misunderstood insect — and discoverer of 15 species — friends have dubbed the soft-spoken scientist “Ipis Lord,” after the local name for the ubiquitous bug.
While fully aware most view cockroaches as disgusting, disease-bearing pests, the 31-year-old University of the Philippines entomologist said they deserve more study — and credit — for their key role in the planet’s ecosystem.
Photo: AFP
“I also hated cockroaches when I was a child,” Lucanas said with a grin during an interview in the college town of Los Banos, south of Manila.
“Fear of cockroaches is innate,” he conceded, adding that he usually tells people “I work in a museum” when asked about his job.
His girlfriend, also an entomologist, is more understanding, although her work focuses on insects less reviled than the cockroach, of which there are more than 4,600 known species.
“It’s possible the real total is double or even triple that,” Lucanas said, unable to hide his enthusiasm.
“For the longest time, no one was studying them,” he said, calling it “sad” given the size and variety of the archipelago nation’s cockroach population.
The massively biodiverse Philippines has about 130 known species, three-fourths of which are found nowhere else on Earth.
Lucanas said there could be another 200 local varieties yet to be documented.
“Because of their outsized role in the ecosystem, its processes would be hampered if they disappear,” he said.
Like dung beetles and earthworms, cockroaches are detritivores, built to eat and break down dead organic matter — including their own kind — and return them to the soil.
While some cockroach species do carry disease-spreading microbes, a world without them would slow the process of decomposition crucial for sustaining ecosystems, he said.
Birds and spiders would lose a key food source, and plants would absorb less carbon dioxide, potentially contributing to global warming.
Even so, Lucanas keeps a can of bug spray handy at work, ready to kill any live cockroaches that might view the museum’s 250,000 preserved insect species as a potential snack.
Lucanas’ obsession began 12 years ago on a field trip to a bat cave on a remote island, its floor crawling with cockroaches feasting on guano.
When his biology class adviser was unable to identify the species, Lucanas knew he had found his niche.
A lifelong fan of J.R.R. Tolkien, Lucanas often names his discoveries after creatures in the author’s Lord of the Rings trilogy: “Valar,” “Hobbitoblatta” and “Nazgul.”
Their ranks are set to grow once he finishes writing up scientific papers on his newest finds, he said.
Given the uniqueness of his specialty, the young scientist occasionally finds himself in demand, albeit for specific situations.
The country’s biggest bug spray firm once invited him to lecture its staff on cockroach identification.
Its top restaurant chain also sought his advice, desperate to stop raids on their commissary by so-called German cockroaches, an invasive species from India.
“Control is not really my forte,” Lucanas said.
However, cockroaches are far from the indestructible creatures that they are often portrayed as, he added.
For example, it is not true that cockroaches would inherit the Earth after a nuclear war, as their resistance to radioactive exposure is about on par with other insects, he said.
Humans, not bombs, pose a more immediate threat to the creatures, he said, adding that some species, especially in mountain environments, reproduce slowly and could disappear if their habitats are encroached upon.
Several cave-dwelling Philippine species first described in the 1890s during the Spanish colonial period “have not been seen again” since their habitats were opened to tourism, Lucanas said.
He said that most science funding in his country “goes to research that will directly affect humans,” adding that at best he would only be able to catalog and explain the Philippines’ cockroaches.
For now, that is enough, he said when asked about the decades still left in his career.
“I think I’ll stick with what I’m doing. It’s how I’ve built my reputation — and I really do enjoy working with cockroaches,” he said.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
SEEKING ORDER: Rodrigo Paz said that ‘anyone who wants to destroy the nation will have to deal with this president and the full force of the constitution’ Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Wednesday said that the nation was at a “breaking point” after nearly a month of protests that have caused shortages of food, fuel and medicine. Paz, who took office six months ago amid the worst economic crisis there in four decades, is battling a groundswell of fury over his policies. The political capital, La Paz, has been besieged by low-income workers and members of the indigenous majority calling for his resignation. “The country needs order and is reaching breaking point,” the 58-year-old said at a public event in La Paz, renewing his appeal for dialogue. On Tuesday, the Bolivian
Forecasters in Europe yesterday warned of exceptional heat as record temperatures driven by a “heat dome” push temperatures well above seasonal norms across the continent. The surge follows a record-breaking Monday, with France logging its hottest day in the month of May on record, its weather agency said, and the UK also posting unprecedented highs. A so-called “heat dome” of warm air from northern Africa trapped under a high-pressure system over western Europe is behind the high temperatures not usually seen until high summer. Restrictions on outdoor work were imposed in parts of Italy, beaches in southwest France filled earlier than usual and
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
RSS