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There is no excuse. Bug or human - my privacy had been violated, and this morning I have most certainly witnessed an unlawful act of espionage. Right here in the holy island of gods, in my own shower.

After a long break from blogging about the gockiburrys, they still persistently pester my peace.. Today I gathered first-hand information about them. When threatened by an enemy, instead of fleeing, some small insects sometimes pretend to be dead, then coming back to life once the danger has passed. A truly adaptive evolutionary trait for them - just another point to add to my why-i-hate-bugs list. According to the wise words of Wikipedia:

In animal behaviour, thanatosis (from the Greek noun θανάτωσις meaning "putting to death") is the process by which an animal feigns death in order to evade unwelcome attention, such as that of a predator, or a male trying to mate with a female. This hinges on the pursuer becoming unresponsive to its victim, as most predators only catch live prey. Pasteur classifies it as a form of self-mimesis, a form of camouflage or mimicry in which the "mimic" imitates itself in a dead state, such that its pursuer no longer takes notice of it. It is a phenomenon known in invertebrates such as the wasp, Nasonia vitripennis, and cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus,but also in vertebrates such as the common opossum..

..AND THE SPY COCKROACHES! The following will be my testimonial as sole witness of this morning's episode of roach espionage.

7:55 a.m. Just like every other morning, I started to shower. An appointed small-size secret agent Mr. Gregor Samsa started to crawl out of the drain in the corner of the bathroom, scaring the bajeezes out of me! I pointed the shower head to its directions and quickly managed to create a line of water around the drain, so the enemy could not possibly infiltrate across.

7:56 a.m. After receiving light sprinkle attacks from my only weapon, it started to only wobble around, then gradually weaken and was suddenly lying on its back, legs up.

8:05 a.m. Still no movement from those spiny little legs; and I was still in the shower, unsuspectingly.

8:15 a.m. Don't ask; I was still taking my shower.

8:25 a.m. Hey, I enjoy taking long showers! Dead enemy was still in that same old position somewhere near that corner drain.

8:35 a.m. Situation in bathroom seemed safely under control, and I proceeded normally to get out of the shower, put on clothes, and went out. Forgetting my used towel and clothes, I stepped back into the bathroom to get them.. and I saw with my own two eyes the cunning cockroach resurrecting from the dead; RUNNING at full speed; back down the drain!

11:55 p.m. I finished work, but am still amazingly wide awake drugged by black coffee. Blogging and researching online about the cockroach's hardiness compared to us humans and other earthly species - along with the one above - I find out a few other facts. Discovery's Myth Busters team submerged six roaches in containers filled with water for half an hour, and it didn't pose any danger to their lives. They also have high resistance to radio activity. Which means if a nuclear warfare were to wipe out all living humans on this planet, this particular species would survive and most probably rule. Due to its high reproductive rates and current large number of population.

While the additional info didn't help me like cockroaches better, I'd like to share a few bugshoots I've been (unintentionally) collecting last month:

(click for a clearer view of each picture)