Most organisms in nature live simply, alone. Only a small number have reached the highest level of the hierarchy and live in organized "states". These include, for example, bees and ants, as well as foreign termites and 15 other bizarre groups. These "eusocial" organisms are characterized by division of labor, overlapping generations, and care for offspring. Scientists from the Slovak Academy of Sciences have found that cockroaches also form such a "superorganism". Their research these days is commented on the world's most prestigious scientific and popularization media.
"One of the most bizarre is certainly the green metallic cockroach of the genus Melyroidea, which the authors thought was a relic from the time of the dinosaurs, and therefore subjected it to a detailed study. However, the unusual structure of the body turned out to be the result not of primitivity, but of his way of life. This is a special group of cockroaches living in nests (states) of up to 1000 individuals. They probably feed exclusively on green algae. Pups of all developmental stages, adult "workers" as well as "queen" were observed, while adults fed the pups, "said Peter Vršanský, geologist of SAS, who is the leader of the international research team.
The nest of this genus of cockroaches was found only after several years of searching in an unspecified species of tree from the genus Casearia. These trees have hardwood that does not decompose as fast as most other tree species in the rainforest. Cockroach nests have also been found in bamboos, which also have very hard wood, and are therefore suitable for building a perennial nest.
"Several cockroaches from the same family are probably characterized by a certain level of social life, as we have managed to document such a way of life in other newly described related species. We hope that our research will also help protect one of the most valuable areas in the world, which is the UNESCO biosphere reserve Sumaco in Ecuador, "said Ľubomír Vidlička from the Institute of Zoology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences.
During several expeditions to these rare habitats, the scientists documented the entire life cycle in detail and created a profile of the behavior of the mentioned animals. Ivana Koubová from the Institute of Earth Sciences of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, Jan Hinkelman, a doctoral student at the Institute of Zoology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences, and Štefan Nagy from the Institute of Materials and Machine Mechanics of the Slovak Academy of Sciences also took part in the research.

Links to articles in prestigious scientific-popularizing media:

https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs00114-020-01694-x

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2256067-cockroach-species-found-to-live-like-ants-with-workers-and-a-queen/
 
Taken from: https://www.sav.sk/index.php?doc=services-news&source_no=20&news_no=9075 (accessed 14/10/2020)
 
Source: Hinkelman, J., Vršanský, P., Garcia, T. et al. Neotropical Melyroidea group cockroaches reveal various degrees of (eu)sociality. Sci Nat 107, 39 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00114-020-01694-x