This Valentine's gift might bug your sweetheart

Published: February 14, 2011 

In this 2005 photo released by the Wildlife Conservation Society, a Madagascar hissing cockroach crawls on some bark at the Bronx Zoo in New York.

Julie Larsen Maher — JULIE LARSEN MAHER / THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

— 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."

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