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The availability is definitely crazy for those who have been accompanying the hobby since its inception. Going back to 1st October 1986 BCG Species List which is only limited to 17 species, tells us all how far it is has grown. But to be honest, I am more amazed by how organized the hobby was back then, with newsletters, regular articles, all of those efforts which built the foundation in which we all of us are still standing on today. its just amazing if you think of all the limitations back then!

Yeah, we're seeing some really awesome species entered culture lately for sure! If only there were a bit more people in the hobby here, and more interest in some of the less flashy species as well.

Cockroach availability today is crazy

Awesome post, thanks for summing it up here in a nice manner! Good to spread awareness of hybridization possibilities and what said hybrids look like.

A beautiful species of small Blaberid with metallic green adults. 😍 I did not find them too difficult to rear, fingers crossed they'll breed well for me! Female: Males: Females are unbelievably vibrant in coloration, they look oversaturated in real life. 😍 Males are quite a bit darker but still super pretty.

No, a male from a different breeder.

Not sure if they're mimicking any specific type of beetle, but their appearance is very beetle-like. Could just be coincidence though.

This is good information- very interesting. I'm not sure I can really tell the difference between the two species, like you mention it is somewhat difficult. Hopefully stuff like this is openly visible to newer hobbyists so we can maintain pure lines. A little off topic here but like in the discord I don't see how information that has been shared can be retrieved as opposed to information being easily available here on the forum. (Also the speed in which the topics change almost make me dizzy on discord)

A few years ago I saw people keeping the two species in the same enclosure, and I've seen people mislabel L. verrucosa as L. subcincta before, so it's possible for newbies to put them together by accident. I've seen people claim they cannot hybridise, but nobody seemed to have actually tested that. Since I own both species and have space for more, I decided to give it a go. FOR SCIENCE! But mostly for everyone's peace of mind. This experiment has been going since about 2022, I decided to put it here now too so everyone can actually look it up and find it instead of it being trapped within a niché social media audience. Enclosure is large critter keeper with about 7cm (~2,8 inches) of soil, both species love making burrows and little underground tunnel systems and seem happier when they have plenty of room to do so. Original set up had coconut fibre but I noticed a significant loss in nymphs that I did not experience with the more earthy soil I use in my other enclosures, so I switched it out. Leaf litter was always available as food source and the occasional fruit snacks, rotting wood, and fish flakes (for protein) were given, too. They also really like rodent food sticks with seeds and nuts. Misted regularly so the soil never dries out completely. Kept at room temperature between 20-26C. Note - To make sure the females had not already mated, I picked female nymphs and placed them in an enclosure with males, then waited until they reached adulthood and produced nymphs. Most images are labelled for clarity/image search engines. First experiment: Lucihormetica verrucosa (male) × Lucihormetica subcincta (female) Have been kept together for almost an entire year. No sign of offspring. Second experiment: Lucihormetica verrucosa (female) × Lucihormetica subcincta (male) Produced hybrid offspring! Here's the only survivor from the coconut fibre disaster. At this stage it's impossible to visually tell that it's a hybrid because their nymphs look pretty much the same (my older L. verrucosa nymphs tend to develop interesting orange patterns on their body while L. subcincta nymphs remain mostly black looking more like the pictured hybrid nymph here, but I don't consider it reliable enough for identification). Once the hybrids reached adulthood though, it was fairly easy to tell. Pure and hybrid males comparison: Females comparison: More adult hybrids (the light colour in some hybrids is due to them having molted recently): Appearance notes: Wings in all hybrids tend to be an interesting mix between the parent species, appearing like a square with rounded sides. The antennas of hybrids have a small white section towards the end just like in L. subcincta, something that is absent in L. verrucosa. Their wing colour is darker than L. subcincta and in person appears closer to L. verrucosa. More inconsistent appearance notes: The size of hybrids is similar to L. verrucosa, but can vary a lot between individuals. Pronotum pattern on hybrid females tends to be closer to the L. subcincta I own rather than the common pattern in my L. verrucosa colony, but the pattern can vary a lot even between individuals of the same species. Same goes for the head pattern, even being absent in some individuals of either species. Fertility of hybrids: While they can and do mate, no offspring has been produced yet. I am experimenting with offering pure bred individuals and see if any of the hybrids are actually fertile. Will update with the results eventually. TL;DR: I personally wouldn't recommend housing Lucihormetica verrucosa and Lucihormetica subcincta together.

He might be good for breeding, hard to say. The horns aren't like hissers but the pronotum should be a bit different in shape except small males aren't so different. Big and small males come from the same parents so it's really hard to say if you'll get a monster or a runt. Like hissers a brother can be 1/3 the mass of another.

Is he still breeding? I think the two I have left are a male and female, and I'm hoping both are adults with this last molt. I got a pair from you born in 2022 a long with a 2021 female last year. The last segments are different sizes underneath. But there isn't really any difference in the "horns". I was expecting a difference there.

I have an old male that I've been finding on his back now and then for a year. He can't live forever.

Update on this. I haven't had any more tears in the brass. I have moved smaller species into tubs with brass ventilation and kept larger species in tubs with stainless steel mesh ventilation. The stainless is much more difficult to melt into the tub than the brass mesh. I never got around to melting all the stainless mesh into the tubs and in those instances the original hot glue has held up pretty well over time. If the hot glue does start to peel off, it is very easy to add more. But stripping the hot glue off and then welding the screen back on is very time consuming.

Did you get any?

Fresh just in the last couple hours

I'm trying this contraption out, with burlap fit to it using zip ties. I could just buy cork or something but oh well.

I've been listening to the past Roach crossing streams and I know now that I don't know much about molds. Could be ok, might not. Don't know how to find out either. I'll have to search the forums.

I was wondering if there would be a benefit to adding leaves when making flake soil. Has anyone done that? Maybe crumple up the leaves or even put them through the wife's food processor haha then in to the next batch of flake soil.

I am happy to report that, as of today, I am also a happy keeper of this line of Therea sp from India. Gifted by the Hong Kong keeper 🥰

I've never used leaf litter with blaberids. I'll go throw some in.

I think I'm going to order some coir mat now! Great idea

Leaf litter holds moisture very well I just keep the bottom inch dark and it keeps my humidity high it's perfect I hate coir for anything I've tried it in the past and will never use it again I find it dries out easily and goes powdery and has no function or nutrition especially for Pods etc My go to perfect sub is forest floor for anything it holds moisture well it's very nutritious for anything that eats sub totally natural I use it for Roaches Pods spiders centipedes pet much everything I also like live Moss but with a good inch+ of roots (yes I know it doesn't have roots they're rhizomes) that is a fantastic moisture holder as the roots never dry out even if it's neglected for a couple of weeks and it's perfect I have a quarter to a third of the tub depending on species with love Moss How this helps SB

Ive thinking about all leaf substrate for a couple months now but haven't tried it. I'm curious if you will have to put more effort/time into keeping up the humidity vs using a mix of leaves and other media. My understanding is that coco coir is useful for holding moisture. Most people don't have limitless quantities of leaf litter as an option, which I think is definitely an advantage. And rotting wood too!!

Hey Warren Tbh mate it was something I noticed which then made me try an experiment I topped up the leaf litter and instead of spreading it out i left it in a pile then noticed A LOT of them on and in the pile so curious I made about a quarter of the sub (I only did one corner) with all leaf litter and that was definetly the most popular place especially for all the the smaller nymphs so I changed it all the forest floor for crushed leaf litter and they're evenly distributed again as apparently they use leaf litter cover in their natural habitat and it's also probably easier for burrowing into especially the smaller nymphs I should also mention I have basically a limitless supply of leaf litter (and rotted wood) and i tend to use it quite freely so all my Pods/MTU etc love me 🤣 I still keep the bottom inch dark by regular spraying as they also love their humidity I'd be interested in other people's thoughts/findings on this Take care SB

That's interesting. I may be asking for too many nitpicking details, but what benefits do you see from using all leaf litter?