stanislas

I can imagine it to be a burden for them. I haven't seen deaths, but of course this is a very controlled environment. 
So far they have proven to be an easy species. I keep them at room temperature, feed them fish food and pollen, and mist them daily (at which they all come out of hiding to drink the droplets). 

It's always fascinating to see those mother roaches walk around with nymphs on their back/under their wings. 

My Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis males are very noisy! 

Once in a while one of them comes to the surface and starts making noise by hammerings with its abdomen on a piece of wood. The wood and the enclosure kind of resonates and enhances the noise. 
I manages to make an audio recording with my audio recorder (see attachement). There is a lot of bass to hear (it's a decent recorder), and it gives a good idea what I have to endure here  

I', pretty sure this is a way to attract females. 

My question: has anyone observed a similar thing? 

20200308_Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis.mp3

Somehow I cannot reply to personal messages? 

Is there a technical problem with the forum? 

It also depends on the type of wood and how to decayed. So it can be white and spongy, but also be brown and crumble. 

I generally stick to the rule: if I can scratch the wood off with my fingernails, the roaches will be able to eat it. And if the wood comes from the right kind of tree (wood that's not toxic for roaches) the roaches will decide themselves that they prefer. When in doubt, you can always experiment by offering different kinds of rotten wood. 

My Panesthia roaches do eat a lot of wood, but leave the harder parts alone. Which in turn gives me 'interestingly' shaped pieces of wood once they're done. 

Sounds familiar.... If I boil or otherwise sterilize wood, it tends to overgrow with fungi. Those range from green to very hairy. 
Bark can contain enough food to become overgrown with fungi. And there are always fungi and bacteria on *any* surface, but they keep each other in check.
Once you boil the bark, the balance get's disturbed and one species can colonize the whole surface. At least that's how I see it. 

What to do? Clean it at 40-50 degree, so that not all microorganisms get killed, or what I  often do: bury/cover the bark in/with balanced soil of compost so that it get's recolonized in a more balance way. I just take some substrate from a roach bin of bury it in there and wait for a week or so. 

Another option is to have it dry thoroughly  before adding it to the enclosure. Without moisture, these fungi won't grow, 

I use coco coir, mixed with dead oak leaves for most of my roaches and a layer of leaves on top. I also add (depending on the species), pieces of bark (alder, birch etc.) to provide a hiding space. 

For the species that eat wood (e.g. Panestia), I use flake soil (fermented and composted oak wood chips and sawdust) and pieces of partially rotten wood (that has been laying in my garden for a few years). 

In case of climbing species (e.g. Thorax porcellana), I also add twigs and branches. 

Hornbeam leaves, or leaves from other trees that curl up when dried is very suitable if you have small species that like to hide (e.g. Perisphaerus pygmaeus). 

The downside of some substrates is that that are fungus gnat magnets, so I add soil from other enclosures in new ones, because that contains predatory mites that seem to control fungus gnat. Th roaches itself don't seem to be bother much by the little flies, but my wife does object having them around in large quantities in our house. 

Just my 2 cent based on my collection: 

* Eublaberus distanti: non climbing, tolerant for room temperature, adult visible at night, burrows, slow life cycle at lower temperatures. 
* Eupolyphaga sinensis: females non climbing, tolerant for lower temperatures, very hardy, burrows, slow life cycle, but many eggs. 
* Hemiblabera tenebricosa: non climbing, tolerant for and reproducing at lower temperatures, adult often visible, burrows, relatively fast reproducing. 
* Hyporhicnoda reflexa: non climbing, tolerant for room temperature, hidden life, burrows, slow reproduction. 
* Loboptera decipiens: climbing, tolerant for room temperature, often visible, not burrowing, fast reproducing. 
* Lucihormetica verrucosa: climbing, tolerant for room temperature, very visible, burrows and hides in wood, fast reproducing. 
* Panchlora nivea: climbing adults, can fly well, tolerant for room temperature, often visible, nymph burrow, fast reproducing. 
* Panesthia angustipennis angustipennis: non climbing, tolerant for room temperature and below, very hidden life, burrows, very slow reproduction. 
* Polyphaga aegyptiaca: females non climbing, tolerant for lower temperatures, very hardy, burrows, slow life cycle, but many eggs. 
* Polyphaga obscura: females non climbing, tolerant for lower temperatures, very hardy, burrows, slow life cycle, slow reproduction. 
* Polyphaga saussurei: females non climbing, tolerant for lower temperatures, very hardy, burrows, slow life cycle, slow reproduction. 
* Pseudoglomeris magnifica: climbing, males fly well, tolerant for lower temperatures, pleasure to see, but often hidden, not burrowing, slow life cycle, slow reproduction. 
* Perisphaerus pygmaeus: climbing, males fly well, tolerant for room temperatures, often hidden, not burrowing. 
* Schizopilia fissicollis: climbing, tolerant for room temperatures, often hidden, males visible as they fight a lot, not burrowing, relatively fast life cycle, fast reproduction. 

Welcome! 
Ah yes..., the ever growing number of species in a collection.... 
What's your decision tree when it comes to limiting the collection? Only rare species? Size, locality, difficulty in keeping? 

And thanks for the pictures you showed here! 

How is the care for Thorax porcellana  like? 
Food, substrate, temperature, moisture etc. 
Do the nymphs borrow in the soil? Are they active during the day, or the night? 
How big are the adult? 

Just asking, because I'll get this species soon. 

Thanks!

14 hours ago, varnon said:

Wait, is this species parthenogenetic too? I might have to get some.

Yes, they are indeed. Although males do exist, but they aren't available in the hobby (yet). 

They are quite slow in reproducing. The cycle from nymph to nymph takes 3 year here. I started with 7, lost 3 adults along the way, and now I have around 70 nymphs (besides the remaining 4 adults). 
They are a rather boring species. I estimate (from camera movement detection) that they move on average 20 minutes/week. 
Only in the mating season they become truly active. The females then start wandering around at night, trying to climb on whatever there is available and then wait for, I assume, a male to fly by.

My wife thinks it's a bit sad, all those waiting and longing female roaches waiting for their prince ...

Good to hear from you, albeit it in an unexpected way! 

I really do like your song! It's quite an unusual method to educate people on the subject of name revisions  
If there a new species to be described, can they contact you for a musical version? 

In any case, I shared it on my facebook page. 

Thanks Hisserdude! 

I dug out my Polyphaga saussurei collection, to see how many I have at the moment. 3 Adults and many nymphs.

And while they were together, I noticed them moving almost synchronous: 

Ah, now I understand! 
Well, I myself do at times worry that I might not be able to distinguish my Polyphaga species if I ever had to. So in that sense I understand your hypothetical challenge  

Welcome Cole! 
I'm pretty sure that your experience with all kind of invertebrates can help the roach community as well. 

I beg you pardon, but why do you need to be able to distinguish nymphs? 
Do you have them mixed? Or has the label fallen off? 
I'm a bit puzzled... 

But to be fair, I cannot directly help you with your question, as I do not have multiple hisser species. Although I find it very hard, next to impossible, to tell apart the nymphs of certain other related species. 

Build a trap? 

I pity that you live that far away (Belgium - Ohio is about 6527 km / 4056 miles). Otherwise you could get some excess roaches. 

I think you should exercise some more patience. 
Could be that: 

- The adults aren't ready yet to reproduce. 
- The adults are very old. 
- It takes at least two month for the eggs to be ready. So...
- Lower temperatures will result in longer hatching times. 
- Etc...

None the less, I'm often impatient myself when I have new roaches. And patience one must have with some species... 
Good luck with your roaches! 

Link to: Useful information about this species

Perhaphs you can make an account and give some more information about things like: why, how, where.... 

That would certainly make communication easier and increase your changes of actually getting in touch.

Just my 2 cents. 
 

I did set up a second enclosure with moist cocopeat soil and a lot of stacked pieces of bark (both vertical and horizontal). A very well ventilated lid on top. 
After that I transferred around 12 animals to the new enclosure. It was a good opportunity to check my population. The inspection showed that I have some adults, and a lot of nymphs of at least 3 different stages.

In my setup, the inter-generation time is around 8 months. And it turns out that the first generation gave at least 3 batches of young before they perished themselves from old age, with around 10 young in each batch. 
So if all goes well and assuming only little loss along the way, I should be able to crank out a decent colony within a year. Keeping my fingers crossed.... 

And what kind of articles do you need? How long? written toward what kind of audience? Scientific viewpoint? Or rather experience based information? 
Do you need additional photographs etc. 

Could you give some clues? I'm not familiar with the magazine. 

Some update, as it has been brought to my attention that Schizopilia fissicollis isn't doing well in captivity for a lot of people. 
Mine are still going strong, but that are a bit picky when it comes to their habitat it seems. 
Here is what I do and what I learned: 

* How I keep them: 
- pure cocofiber at the bottom, slightly moist. On top of that some stones. On the stones I have a pile of dry pieces of bark. 
- I feed them fish food and some fruits. 
- I rarely mist the enclosure
- I do not heat the enclosure. 
- There is plenty of ventilation in the system. 
- I keep disturbances to an absolute minimum. 

* What I learned: 
- They are sensitive to mold. 
- They do not need a lot of moisture, although they tend to hide in the slightly more moist lower parts of the bark pile. 
- They like fruit and eat a lot of fish food. I keep the fish food dry and I make sure that the fruit is never molted. 

I'm planning to set up a larger second enclosure to ramp up their number. 

Anyone else experience with this species? 

Always beautiful to see! 

Wish there was a species that stayed that color, it would be an angel-like roach

5 hours ago, Axolotl said:

So beautiful. About how big is the one in the photo?

A little over 3 cm / 1.2 inch.