Pulk

The surface was not the issue. One molted a few days ago on a perfectly vertical surface and had the same problem (pictured). I'm going to try giving them a water dish or water gel.

The egg cartons are at a 60* angle and have space on the sides, so they can molt essentially vertically, it's just a little awkward. Any particular reason for dog food or apple, other than that they work well for people?

Nymphs seem healthy, adults seem healthy (so far no deaths after molting), and exiting the old exo goes fine. But afterward, most of the adults have mild to serious problems with the folded wings expanding. The inner wings tend to be much worse than the outer ones. I just added a completely vertical surface for them to use, but it seems like the steeply angled egg cartons offer them equivalent or similar surfaces. High humidity didn't seem to help. Possibly relatedly, these new adults are a little smaller than my first ones, which I only raised through their last few molts. They're getting oranges and high protein cat food. Any ideas/suggestions for either problem, maybe something to add to their diet? These are the two worst ones; the others have mostly expanded/normal outer wings.

This persists for the whole instar; it's not just a fresh molt look. It happened to a largish B. giganteus nymph earlier this year, and I just found a smallish B. craniifer nymph with it. This nymph definitely looked normal before the molt, so I'm guessing it just lasts one instar (even if they can molt in this condition). Has anyone else seen this? Any ideas on the cause? B. giganteus B. craniifer

Pile of giganteus (a few months ago). Another new aberrant male, with a crazy pronotum grin. Another pretty nymph.

Vibrant form Blaberus giganteus nymph. About half of my large nymphs have this going on to some extent. (Edit: This might be due to low humidity. Thanks DITB) Flash No flash (different specimen) Aberrant adult male (one of two). I've been assured that they are almost definitely not hybrids. The other one next to a normal. Notice the red legs. *Very* unusual nymph. It stayed like this (faded a little) for weeks until I stopped keeping track of it.