Behold, a new species

Notes from an entomologist’s journal

The email arrived Tuesday (July 21) morning: “Large aggregation of cockroaches reported at Jantar Mantar. Behaviour unusual. Immediate observation recommended.” Curious reports are why entomologists travel. So, she packed collecting tubes, a hand lens, a field notebook, and by the time she reached the field, the cockroaches had multiplied. None had six legs.

They carried backpacks instead of antennae, water bottles instead of wings, and handwritten placards where one might expect an exoskeleton. A few were chanting, others debated finer points of law, some were livestreaming. She wrote in her notebook: “Specimens superficially resemble Homo sapiens. Self-identify as cockroaches.” That last part intrigued her.

Cockroaches have survived ice ages, insecticides, and humanity’s relentless attempts to evict them. Their gift is not strength but persistence. Disturb them and they vanish. Wait a while and they reappear, largely unimpressed by civilisation. The Jantar Mantar creatures displayed the same tendency. One protest was dismantled, another surfaced elsewhere. Barricades went up, conversations migrated online, accounts multiplied, memes mushroomed. Disturbance produced adaptation, not decline. Lathis, it seemed, were merely another environmental pressure. 

Yet, something refused to fit. Cockroaches are gregarious, but loosely so. Wasn’t this intrusion also like a colony of ants? Young individuals wandered from the main group, returning with food, water, extension cords, portable fans, journalists. One shouted into a megaphone; moments later, the crowd reconfigured itself without any visible command. Ants achieve all this through pheromone trails. These organisms had apparently evolved WhatsApp. There was no queen, either. 

Ant colonies depend on hierarchy, here leadership shifted constantly. Someone gave a speech, someone negotiated with cops, someone else translated for newcomers. Lawyers and doctors appeared, students swept the site after meals. Task allocation without permanent castes. Curious.

Could they be termites that construct sophisticated homes through countless small actions, none individually planned. At Jantar Mantar, tarpaulin roofs, charging points, first-aid corners, and makeshift libraries materialised. Nobody issued instructions. The structure simply emerged.

By Day 4, another comparison suggested itself. Locusts spend much of their lives alone, until conditions change. Then they transform, almost overnight, into intensely social creatures with different ways of behaving together. Perhaps these students had undergone similar transition. Alone, they were exam candidates. Together, they became something else! Our entomologist closed her notebook. Taxonomic conclusion: resilience of cockroaches, cooperation of ants, division of labour of bees, construction skill of termites, collective transformation of locusts. Known insect: none. Tentative classification: Human.

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