The social roach loves to dine in groups

Washington, June 11 (ANI): Cockroaches are social insects and like to swarm on food than to dine alone, a new study reveals.

Mathieu Lihoreau of Queen Mary, University of London, and his colleagues discovered that the lone cockroach is a myth.

For the experiment, two piles of identical food were placed before roaches.

Surprisingly, the insects packed themselves on one instead of splitting into two groups.

"They were assumed to forage individually. If they forage individually they should split into two groups," Discovery News quoted Lihoreau, as saying.

The researchers believe roaches get cues from other roaches, which means the more roaches there are skittering about a food pile, the more attractive the food gets, in a snowball effect.

This continues until the food is gone.

Lihoreau said: "The more they are feeding on the source, the longer they stay."

The findings of the study appear in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology. (ANI)