elI5 why do cockroaches die upsidedown?
In: Biology
They do not always. Generally, if you see them on their back, it means they died from poison and the poison caused their legs to have spastic contractions. One of those contractions pushed them over onto their backs, at which point their legs continued to spasm without affecting their posture anymore.
This is a matter of physics. As the bug nears death, normal blood flow ceases, causing the legs to contract inwardly. Without the support of the legs, the body becomes top-heavy, and usually falls upside-down.
Basically, they are just a bunch of drama queens. After all the talk about how they can survive anything—nuclear fallout, extreme temperatures, etc.—they have developed quite the ego based on this perception of pseudo-immortality. So, when the time comes for them to actually pass on, they just have to make a scene of it – which includes the classic possum impression. Interestingly, this dramatic behavior is not viewed as favorable by the roach community—which we can infer from the typical scenario that the ‘upsidedown’ (dead) roaches are found in solitude… the other, ‘upsideup’ (living) roaches are rarely observed paying any respect to their fallen peers.
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