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crepsis

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  1. OH! Now that was the kind of explanation I was hoping for! Thanks again!
  2. Very cool stuff! Apparently, that was not in an abstract...I just assumed it was, because I had been reading so many that day, and the article was so short I guess it just all ran together in my head when I thought to post it here. It's actually an answer to a reader's question in 'India's National Newspaper' - The Hindu, by an Entomologist at AVRDC, The World Vegetable Center, Dr. R. Srinivasan, in Shanhua, Taiwan.
  3. OMG! OMG! OMG! I had no idea that my females had given birth before! They must have, because I just saw two nymphs less than 1/4 inch long! I'm so excited, and they're SOOOO cute!
  4. So it's definitely genetic. Rosenkreiger: Do you have any males that do not have that, or do they all have it? Did you happen to notice when they were nymphs if the "notch" was apparent at that time? I've just been doing some thinking about it, and if there are males that do not have that trait, it would probably be fairly easy to breed a line that do not show it in as little as 2-3 generations from several (or many!) initial pairings - with a LOT of work (fun), time, and LOTS of space/containers! But, if all males show that trait, then it's probably not possible...which it sounds like it is the case, since males from all those other species show the same trait It would be fun to give a massive project like that a go, and achieve the results though! I haven't been able to inspect every one of my males at this point yet, to see for myself, because ...(see below) BugmanPrice: I took that photo from about 12 inches away with a 12MP camera...my females are carrying oothecae right now, and I don't want to do anything that might jeopardize the babies! These are my first roaches, they just matured from nymphs about 2-3 months ago, so I want some successful 'births' before I go mucking about in their tank too much. I'll see if I can get a photo of one of the females, but for some reason they are harder to get pics of the underside as they seem to be a bit less outgoing than the males.
  5. http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/disco...ckroaches_N.htm Fascinating!
  6. Unfortunately no, I've just been doing some research on the internet and found this piece of information interesting. I thought that it would be interesting for other people as well, since I had no idea that it was even possible for different sexes of the same species to have a different number of chromosomes! I found it in the abstract of a research paper on cockroach chromosomes, and I'm too cheap to pay for the whole article to read more, at this point, when I can probably find more related information for free with a little work. But, if I do run across anything else like this, I will definitely share it!
  7. Ok! I still have some questions though... So then is it a genetic trait, or is this a type of injury obtained when mating? I noticed that when mating, one of the roaches may try to run away, and ends up dragging the other around for a bit...which is why I was wondering if it could be a 'natural phenomenon' ( a result of being pulled apart after mating is finished) as opposed to a genetic trait. Are there males that do not have this trait, or is it something that 100% of males from B. craniifer, B. giganteus, B. colosseus, B. bolivianus, B. parabolicus, B. fusca, B. atropos carry? What about B. discoidales? Do you know if wild specimens carry this trait as well? Thanks! You eased my mind quite a bit! In addition, I'm finding this all very interesting to think about the genetics of it all...
  8. Some insects such as cockroaches, grasshoppers, and crickets have only one type of sex chromosome: X. This means that male and female cockroaches have a different number of chromosomes. This is very different from most organisms, which have either X and Y sex chromosomes (most people are familiar with these) or W and Z sex chromosomes (birds and some insects use these for sex determination). Females have two of the same sex chromosomes (XX) Males have just one sex chromosome (X0) <---The 'zero' is a place marker, it means that there is no second X chromosome there.
  9. Here's a short article about cockroaches conceived in space by the russian space program! How cool is that!? http://en.rian.ru/science/20080117/97179313.html
  10. ...it's more aesthetic than anything else, they don't appear to be physically affected by this. This is my first colony, and I'm just wondering if this is something that all male captive bred B. craniifer have and if it can be bred out through selective breeding, or if maybe this is a husbandry issue, or if this is a natural phenomenon? And as far as I can tell most of the males have this, short of picking out the roaches one-by-one to verify that they all do. Again, I must reiterate, it looks almost exactly the same, in the exact same spot on the males that I have gotten a look at, I've counted at least 4 that are like this so far and at that point, they either move around too much and I can't tell who's who anymore, or the rest are in hiding (it's very hard to see the underside of a roach in it's container!)...actually, come to think of it, I don't think I've seen a male that does not have this. Orin, have you noticed this before?
  11. I know part of this is a bit off-topic, but are there any studies that have been done on the genetics behind different roach morphs? Is it as simple as a dominant trait or a recessive trait, or is the black determined by something more complex?
  12. Well, I'm seeing a slight "notch" on the underside of the last segment of the abdomen in the *exact* same place on several (if not all) males of my adult B. craniifers. It makes the underside of the last segment appear asymmetric, and if the underside of the male roach looked like the letter U it would be on the left side of the last segment, with a single very, very small "bristle" sticking out of the notched area. The notched area also appears lighter in pigment, almost white or tan, to the rest of the segment, which is black. It almost looks like some kind of injury, but since it appears in literally the exact same place on them, it leads me to believe it's something else. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? What is this? I've attached the best photo I could snap at the moment...if needed, I'll see if I can get a better one later...the tiny bristle that I was talking about is the tiny little black "triangle" that appears inside and near the bottom of the white "notch" area. Also, some of the roaches, both male and female, seem to be missing all or part of just one of their antennae, since they were nymphs. Would this be the result of injury or something else. If the antennae are damaged as a nymph, do they grow back fully in the successive molts?
  13. I know they loved raw broccoli...unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it!) I fed the last of my crickets to my pet toad. The experience of catching them, raising them, and then breeding them was educational, fun, and exciting at times! I almost miss them, until I think why I decided to feed the last of them off in the first place.
  14. I have successfully raised Gryllus veletus (spring field cricket) to a couple generations before I couldn't stand the smell any more (but that was my fault - keep reading). Most likely the ones that you're talking about are either those or Gryllus pennsylvanicus (fall field cricket). G pennyslvanicus supposedly need to have their eggs go through a dormancy period in cold temperatures to hatch - at least 3 months or so. G. veletus overwinter as juveniles and lay eggs in the spring that don't need to go through that period, so, in my experience, can be raised indoors. I just started out and caught 10 small-to-medium-sized wild juveniles in the fall (that's how I knew they were G. veletus, as G. pennsylvanicus are adults at that time). If you're going to catch some G. veletus, I'd suggest catching full grown adults or very large juveniles in the next month or two, small juveniles will most likely be G. pennsylvanicus, and the eggs they lay (once reaching adult-hood) probably won't hatch. I just kept mine in a rubbermaid container with a good portion of the top cut out and aluminum screening glued in (they can chew through the plastic screening, or so I hear). They WILL jump all the way (about 6 inches from the top of the egg cartons) to the lid and cling to the screen, so just beware. They just had 12"x12" egg flats to hide in, and I kept a moist container of coconut bedding for them to lay the eggs in (with a "bridge" for them to be able to get into it). They do tend to dig up the coco bedding and it gets all over the bottom of the bin they were in. Fed them oranges, apples, oatmeal, monkey chow (very similar to dog food, but in larger 'biscuits' with eggs as protein source instead of meat), and just about anything that you'd think would be good for them. Water: misted sides of enclosure and water crystals. I'm still not certain how they got the water out of the water crystals, because I never ever did see any of them actually trying to chew the pieces of gel, they always just sat there sucking on them it looked like - that's why I misted the sides of the enclosure, I was always afraid that they weren't going to get enough moisture from the water crystals. The secret it seems to keep them laying eggs, is to keep their enclosure heated (but not enough to bake them, obviously!). They seem to lose interest in laying eggs if they're not warm enough. If you do catch some, and they're not laying eggs, just try raising the temperature bit by bit and seeing if that helps. I removed the container of eggs and hatched the pinheads (they look like 'little black ants' with a white stripe between thorax and abdomen) in a seperate container, and then transferred them to the large bin when they were large enough not to be eaten very easily. One thing I noticed about these crickets vs Acheta domestica (pet store variety that you have in the pics), is that the eggs seemed to be a *bit* more forgiving of drying out then the pet store variety. You will want to try and keep the container with eggs in it damp. I let mine completely dry out for about 3 days, and I mean BONE dry, before wetting it again, and the eggs still hatched (I don't know if all of them did, but a lot sure did!) - but that's just my experience...everything else I've read always says that will kill the eggs. They are so much better looking then the pet store variety cricket, and they are definitely much plumper and generally larger than them too. However, they chirp much louder as well. They are also more agressive (I just mean aggressive for a cricket - which isn't too much) and therefore, much more interesting to watch then pet store ones. If you like watching the pet store variety, you'll REALLY enjoy watching the ones you raise from wild stock. I don't think they're stinky like the pet store ones, but if you don't keep up on cleaning the enclosure (as I obviously didn't!) the dead ones will begin to make whatever room you keep them in smell rotten! I don't know if it was the monkey chow that I was feeding them, but their poops were light tan dry little pellets, and the enclosure itself didn't smell, nor did the crickets, but when they died, they'd rot and stink up the place, just FYI.
  15. Do they get their orange coloring after their exoskeleton has dried a bit?
  16. I would guess it would be agar agar. Usually you can find it in powder form at a health food store or co-op.
  17. Nice! Can't wait 'til I get to see that up close and personal too!
  18. Ok, so I switched my parrot onto a new healthier diet recommended by my vet. It's Harrison's bird food - High Potency diet, I use the coarse size. It's an organic, vegetarian, human grade food ingredient diet that has all sorts of good stuff in it, although there are NO preservatives so it's best to buy in smaller quantities, so it doesn't get stale or go bad. I've been giving it to my roaches, and this is the first food that I've given that they *really* seem to love (since they're eating it in quantity), and the nymphs that I've had a peek at, when not in hiding, are *very* fat and healthy looking! I just wanted to share this with everybody in case your interested. It's a bit expensive, on the internet direct from the company it's $7.70 for a pound and around $30 for 5 lbs, but from what I've seen, well worth it, especially if you are keeping them as pets! I think I'm going to use this as the staple diet for my roaches from now on - along with fruits & veggies occasionally. I know if you have a LOT of roaches, it may or may not be worth the price, but ingredients really don't get better than this. I guess I'll find out if it's worth the price, when my colony gets bigger, or when I get some different species, but usually my pets get fed almost better than I do! Here's the ingredient list and nutrition information (in case you were wondering): Ingredients: *Ground Shelled Sunflower Seeds, *Ground Hulless Barley, *Ground Soybeans, *Ground Shelled Peanuts, *Ground Green Peas, *Ground Lentils, *Ground Yellow Corn, *Ground Rice, *Ground Toasted Oat Groats, Psyllium, *Ground Alfalfa, Calcium Carbonate, Spirulina, Montmorillonite Clay, Ground Dried Sea Kelp, Vitamin E Supplement, Sea Salt, Vitamin A Supplement, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, d-Biotin, Thiamine Mononitrate, Sodium Selenite. *CERTIFIED ORGANIC INGREDIENT Guaranteed Analysis: Crude protein (min.) 18%, crude fat (min.) 15%, crude fiber (max.) 6.5%, moisture (max.) 10%.
  19. Well that's no fun...burst my bubble why don't ya! -Chris
  20. Those are all very cool! Now I think I will look at B. discoidalis in a new light. My personal favorite from the pics above: B. parabolicus - because it's chunky and fat in appearance, and practically forces me to think it's cuter than the others! Although when I look at them closely, each species has it's own beauty - judging from these great photos! Keep up the great work Matt, I am loving each and every photo you post! Thank you for posting them! (Man, I must be in a good mood tonight! Might have something to do with having Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow! Happy Thanksgiving to all!!!)
  21. Very very interesting! If this is the case, then you could feed canary food designed to turn their plumage red, I think it contains canthaxanthin, another carotene, and turn them red or pink! Food containing canthaxanthin is also used in salmon farms, to "dye" the salmon whatever color you want it - a grocery store in Minnesota called "Lund's" used to have swatches of color (not unlike paint swatches at a paint store) at the fish counter for farm-raised salmon that you could order to your liking (I guess to match your dishes, or furnishings for the dinner! ), with about 20 different shades from greyish-white to red. Kinda makes me wonder...Thanks Matt for piquing my curiosity!
  22. Just curious...What species is the one in the picture? Where was it caught? It's really quite beautiful! I don't know if it's just the picture, but I really like the green tint to the carapace.
  23. Reminded me of Minneapolis at night, only more lights and more crowded with cars and people...and of course more buildings...but that's what it reminded me of. But since that's the only city I've lived in for any length of time, well that and a few months in Seattle, that's probably why.
  24. crepsis

    Mold

    So would common molds developing on food or on substrate actually poison roaches, i.e. Aspergillus, Penicillin etc, or are they tough enough to handle any toxins produced? I know most everybody removes any signs of mold or tries to keep it from growing, but is it actually physically harmful to them?
  25. I've been using hemp protein powder (human supplement usually added to shakes or food for added protein), available at Whole Foods, as a supplement to other mainly vegetarian foods (keeps any smell from developing) and according to the label it's 50% protein. Mine seem to like it. In regards to a "protein heavy" diet - read this thread -----> Thread
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