A HISSING cockroach or a giant African millepede doesn't have the panache of a cheetah or a tiger. Nor can you throw peanuts to the black widow spider or the dung beetle.
Even so, bugs might provide Dublin Zoo with a new way to fulfil role in education and conservation without all the criticisms attracted by large animal exhibits, according to a report which calls for the creation of an insect house Fat the zoo.
"They are inexpensive to keep and don't cause much trouble if they escape," observed the plan's originator, Prof Ken Baker, of UCD's Department of Veterinary Science.
Prof Baker and a group of three final year zoology students at Trinity College - Ms Liz Barry, Ms Susan Craig and Ms Aiveen Kemp, began work last September on an insect house feasibility study. They reported to the zoo's director Dr Peter Wilson, last week.
The report details a wide range of creepy-crawly residents and includes architectural plans for a two-storey building which provides for a walk-through tropical butterfly enclosure.
Dr Wilson welcomed the study but could not say if or when such a proposal might be pursued.
"An insect house has always been Part of our development plan," he said.
A £15 million 10-year plan for the zoo was launched in June, 1994, and has brought many changes to the gardens. The insect house is there but it is well down the queue in terms of funding.
"Our priority is the welfare of our existing animals," Dr Wilson said.
"There is no reason we shouldn't have invertebrates in zoos," he says. "And yet zoos neglect them. Most only offer large animals in cages looking very unhappy."
Their small size is their real beauty, he argues. "You could have 30 or 60 displays of great interest Fin a relatively small area," he says - in less space than the zoo's tigers now occupy.
