animorphs
in cockroach morph.

Marco in cockroach morph.

"They say that after the big one, total nuclear annihilation, when every other living thing has been turned into a pile of glowing mud, roaches will still be powering over the ruins of civilization. The amazing indestructible roach. They adapt almost immediately to whatever poison is unleashed on them. And they eat virtually anything — books, glue, plants, dead fish, old sneakers. It's almost impossible to destroy them. I like that about cockroaches."
―Marco[src]

The cockroach (also known as simply the roach) is an insect species native to Earth. The American cockroach is the Animorphs' preferred insect morph, used for infiltration and reconnaissance purposes. It is one of the few morphs that all seven Animorphs possessed.

Acquiring

a cockroach

Jake acquires a cockroach

"I absorbed the cockroach's DNA pattern. It was becoming part of me."
―Jake[src]

In The Capture, Jake trapped an American cockroach in his room, which he later acquired. Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax also acquired cockroaches themselves later on in The Capture as well.[1] Months later, in The Discovery, David acquired an American cockroach,[2] and by The Reunion, Tobias had acquired an American cockroach as well.[3]

Usage

into a cockroach

Marco morphing into a cockroach

"I focused on the roach. Not my favorite morph. Not anyone's favorite morph. But I needed to be small, fast, and survivable. Maybe a fly would have been better but I'd had a close call as a fly once: Someone swatted me and smeared me all over the storage rack on a plane. Roaches are harder to kill."
―Jake[src]

The cockroach morph was first used by Jake very early on, who morphed at home and learned that it took practice and time to interpret and understand spoken speech while in roach morph. Rachel, Cassie, Marco, and Ax later morphed into cockroaches at Marco's apartment in order to master the ability to understand speech as well. The Animorphs then used the cockroach morph to infiltrate The Sharing's Headquarters,[1] and later used the cockroach morph to sneak into the Underground Yeerk Pool Complex through The Gap.[4] While the Animorphs were disgusted by the cockroach morph at first, the roach's ability to survive many things made it a very reliable morph for them, which resulted in the cockroach being their most used bug morph.

Appearances

Book Series

TV Series

Known Morphers

Gallery

Elfangor eye closeup andalite chron "Someone took a picture of me? Not cool. Do you see what I'm wearing? I'm Spandex-boy. Totally not cool."

The image gallery for Cockroach may be viewed here

Notes

  1. ↑ Rachel speculates that David is using a roach morph to hide in her bathroom, but it is not confirmed.
  2. ↑ Tobias states that the six Animorphs morphed into a flea, a mosquito, two cockroaches, one housefly, and a wolf spider, and that he was the flea, Marco was the spider, and Ax was the mosquito. It is unknown who exactly morphed the cockroaches or housefly.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 The Capture
  2. ↑ The Discovery
  3. ↑ The Reunion
  4. ↑ The Stranger