Roaches: It's not about looks, but personality

Comedian Dayo Wong Tze-wah turned out to be right about cockroaches: they are not just disgusting vermin but have individual personalities.

That's the latest scientific finding. If people can be divided into extroverts and introverts, well, scientists have discovered the insects may be classified as "adventurous" or "shy".

Back in the early 2000s, TVB had a popular sitcom, War of the Genders, which starred Wong as Yu Lok-tin, a badly educated paralegal who fancied himself a ladies' man and kept a cockroach called Siu Keung as a pet. To the intense annoyance of his flatmate, a legal eagle played by Dodo Cheng, he called Siu Keung his spiritual brother and insisted the bug had personality and communication skills.

Now, scientists at the Université libre de Bruxelles have proved him right. Cockroaches are not just a skittering homogenous mass but have individual character traits, said Isaac Planas Sitjà, a lead researcher at the university.

When they venture out in the open, the shy ones quickly seek shelter and hide away as long as possible. However, others are more adventurous and explore their surroundings. The "cautious" ones may feel safer but have fewer opportunities to find food sources. Those who take risks find more food but are also more easily destroyed.

Writing in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, the research team said: "From studying the way they find shelter, we show that individuals have consistent behaviour which can differ between individuals in a group - cockroaches have personalities."