Meet Clarence the roach. Clarence says hi. On the 16th of May 2007 at approximately 9:30pm, I caught this big guy in my house. Since then it has been residing in a “Discovery Tube”.

He is well. He has eaten half an insect which I had earlier caught - good, he’s hungry, that’s a good sign of a lasting life. Clarence has also done one poo, featured in one of the pictures. It is rather large in comparison to it’s body. Clarence continually wriggles it’s antennae to feel it’s surroundings. He has many spikes on his back legs. He is brown, with transparent pieces of shell on either side of him. His eyes look funny.

Each week, I will bring you photos and updates of Clarence until the day he dies. Keep an eye out, this will be the centre-of-attention on this site for many weeks to come.

Update: Clarence’s life coverage may be cut short due to dad suggesting to throw Clarence out early as cockroaches cause a staining stench after a while. I had forgotten about this. Now I remember the smell of them, from the visits to the cockroach enclosure at Auckland Museum.