This Valentine's Gift Might Bug Your Sweetheart

NEW YORK (AP) - If lingerie is too intimate and dinner out is too expensive, the Bronx Zoo suggests another Valentine's Day gift: a Madagascar hissing cockroach.

Spokesman John Calvelli says, "Nothing says forever like a cockroach."

The Wildlife Conservation Society runs the New York City zoo and is raising funds by offering the public the chance to name the huge roaches. In return for each name, it's asking for a $10 donation.

Calvelli says about 1,700 cockroach names were bought in the first two days of the promotion. Recipients get a certificate.

The zoo says naming a roach will honor a sweetheart's resourcefulness and resiliency. As the zoo puts it: "Flowers wilt. Chocolates melt. Roaches are forever."

___

Online: http://www.wcs.org