At any rate, I walked into my 3rd period class one day and glanced at the cockroach habitat to see right there, out in the open for everyone to watch, the birth of what looks to be about 30-50 baby cockroaches.
And here's a somewhat blurry close-up. You can see the dark spots, which are their eyes, against an otherwise completely white body. You can also see a section of the egg sac, it's a shiny translucent piece, just off center with the babies yet to emerge. They started to darken within an hour and by the following day were completely black all over.
Needless to say, the kids who were fortunate enough to be there were grossed out but fascinated by the whole idea. In three years I've never witnessed the birth process before, so I was pretty psyched myself. Mom seemed pretty exhausted and didn't move much afterward, not surprisingly. In fact she was still in the same spot the following day. But she seems to have recovered just fine and has now re-assimilated with the rest of the colony.
Addendum:
Oh yeah, from what I could tell, since the process was already underway when I first noticed them, it appears that the delivery took a little less than half an hour to complete.
