Ralph

They're stunners! I also had no idea they lived in AL. How's the sac?

I don't even want to think about what I would need do in this situation. Are they a "wild" species in your area?

This female is now five days after her final molt. She came from the Insect Zoo's colony of around a thousand hissers, some of which have one Giant Morph male in their lineage. I've isolated her with a subadult male and subadult female who show similar coloration.

That'll be much better. If you really want to see them go crazy, just put in a fruit they haven't had in a while. Sometimes, though, I see individual roaches with stringy or extra-moist frass. Chronic issues with it are usually indicative of a husbandry problem, I've seen it when the habitat is kept too wet before. Isolated cases of it just seem to happen, though, and do not seem to pose a threat to their health. I bet it's uncomfortable, though!

Mr. Crackerpants, that's an interesting read! A bit of corroboration for something I've been telling people I think is true.

Ha, how did I miss that Smaller Majority article? Thanks for sharing, Keith!

At the Insect Zoo we have: Lucihormetica subcincta Lucihormetica verrucosa Archimandrita tesselata Rhyparobia maderae Gyna lurida Therea petiveriana Therea olegrandjeani Byrsotria fumigata Periplaneta americana as-yet-unidentified Periplaneta Nauphoeta cinerea Pycnoscelus surinamensis Panchlora nivea Blaberus giganteus Blaberus craniifer Blaberus discoidalis Blaberus fusca Blaptica dubia Eublaberus posticus Princisia vanwaerebecki Gromphadorhina portentosa and have had Elliptorhina laevigata and E. javanica. I have to say I'm floored at the growth our hobby has seen over the last few years, in members and in species.

Love seeing all the off-the-wall stuff you end up raising! And yeah, Z. longipes are pretty, but these are insane. The fourth instar is like blown glass.

That's really interesting that they didn't burrow on that substrate. I would've thought they'd try and make do with it. Picky little guys. Might be worth putting them on a variety of subs to see what they'll burrow in and what they won't? Potting soil, plain coco fiber, sand mixed with something else, fine gravel... Just for knowledge's sake.

Always fun to see what new tiny species you're working on! These sure look fast, and have really impressive leg spines... Do you know the purpose of the curved ooth?

Many premature captive deaths are the result of horsehair worms. The Insect Zoo has yet to get a JC which hasn't had a worm... there's no way to tell until a day or two before the stupid thing emerges. Good story, Cariblatta! I'm sure he enjoyed living with so much potential food!

Saw these on Kyle's site, very probably going to have to grab some sometime. I mean, I've had Ceuthophilus before and they were fun... but at around twice the size they should be much better! How many do you have?

This is seriously interesting; and well-documented too! Just wanted to say that they look great (as if a roach could ever look bad)!

I recently got interviewed by one of the college magazines for their article on students' pets after one of my friends had informed a reporter that I, well, had really strange pets. they came over and photographed my crabs, roaches, scorpions, and shrimp, and ended up emailing even more questions after the head writer wanted more information. The whole thing had a really wonderful attitude about it... And they treated them just like anyone else's cat or fish or snake. That's the exception, I think. At the reptile club I go to, a few people still think it unbelievable that someone could want to keep roaches. I just laugh. They'll come around eventually! Oh my, and showing the animals on a first date... I do joke that they're the reason I'm single! I can see it now: my Christmas "family update" cards are just going to be all about who molted and what new babies have hatched...

Stunning pictures of my favorite spiders! Are these two pets or just brought in for the pictures?

I had this problem when I was sorting and counting adults in a new colony the Zoo received (104 adults, whew!). A lot of the adults were small and relatively narrow-bodied, and it was really tough to distinguish them from the subadults sometimes! The characteristics I looked at were: - coloration (not perfect, but in all the lighter color forms the adults' background color and black spots are distinct from the darker nymphs). - pronotum thickness, shape, and rough/dimpled texture... nymphs tend to have flatter, smoother pronota. - hissing (of course, not all of them wanted to do that). - thickness and hairiness of antennae in adult males.

That's really sweet! How old is he? Dominos are so good to show to the wary people... as long as they don't run!

Males sometimes exhibit that kind of "mating" behavior when they are very old and near death. I've seen elderly male hissers stumble around with their abdomens extended and genitalia flexing, and try and mate with food items and about anything else. It's... really pathetic. I also have an old male Lucihormetica verrucosa who showed similar behavior about a week ago; I'm not expecting him to last much longer. I haven't noticed this in females, though. It may be that she recently aborted an ootheca.

Oh that is fun. Thanks for posting! I'll have to share it somewhere too...

Rubber bin... like a Sterilite tub or something? A space heater might be safe, especially if the container's lid retains heat well, but not energy-efficient.

I haven't looked for any change, but mine don't get it often. I give them some when I eat it and think of them, haha. It's an energy-rich food for them that they really seem to get excited about, but I suppose I wouldn't expect it would produce broad physiological changes. Especially when they're already being fed a varied, nutritious diet in captivity.

Beautiful pictures! Especially that poor male peppered. He tries so hard. Some very crisp details on a lot of those wing veins too. Thanks for sharing!

We do have an intriguing opportunity here. I've been doing essentially the same thing as happy, picking up observations casually. I've been especially fascinated with the social behavior of Lucihormetica verrucosa, Rhyparobia maderae, and the feeding habits of my new Blaberus fusca. I'd be very happy to record what I see a certain species doing and add it to others' observations. If we do collaborate seriously, some planning and structure would help make the observations, well, relevant. So we'd consider the colony conditions and whether we'd want to normalize them, and make sure we have observations from a variety of times of day.

Excellent work! One would think that predacious, relatively long-lived, and attractive scarabs would be popular in the hobby, but you're the first I've seen who's raised them!

I see situations like that with females a lot more than with males... He'll probably not be able to breed anymore, but he should survive alright. How humiliating.