How fast are cockroaches?
Glesne, Cockroaches are fast enough. They have giant fibers in their ventral nerve cord that transmit the sensory info from their cerci, which sense air currents, directly to their thoracic ganglia which control their leg muscles. This is a reflex circuit which does not need any decision by the cockroach brain. It is fast enough to detect the air wave in front of a predator and allows the cockroach to scuttle away, avoiding capture. If you want to know how fast in cm/sec you will have to do your own experiment. Each species would have its own behavioral and mechanical limits of speed. You might make your measurement of speed in terms of body lengths per second which might allow you to compare species of cockroaches. What would be your measuring conditions? Starting from a full stop and measure speed after 0.1 or 0.2 seconds? You have some thinking to do before you can decide how to measure the cockroach speed. How long can a cockroach maintain its top speed? How long does it take to ac
