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  1. Oct 2015
    1. My wife and I recently witnessed a cockroach’s ability to find and consume food. We sat down to dinner at a well-known restaurant. Right next to our table was a fairly large painting. We decided to have a glass of wine before dinner. Within minutes of arrival of the wine, a German cockroach appeared from beneath the painting and walked out to the middle of our table. Of course, our reaction was not that of normal human beings and we decided to give it some wine. I placed a small drop of wine several inches from the roach which immediately recognized the presence of food through its antennae (smell). It walked over to the drop and tasted it with its maxillary palps. The roach proceeded to suck up the entire drop (which wasn’t much smaller than the roach). It then crawled back to the picture and disappeared. Much to our surprise, within a few minutes the roach reappeared and came back on the table. Of course I gave it another drop and it repeated the entire process of smelling, tasting and consuming the drop. Once finished this time it cleaned its antennae (as shown below) and returned to the picture. A few minutes later the roach dropped from the picture and began to spin on its back. Inebriated? I would think so.