Test Account

Welcome! Don’t forget the local wild bugs too! On my wishlist: carabid ground-beetles: long-lived predators, usually. Some are breathtakingly iridescent, but many are brown. Even 1-cm species can last half a year or more; have entertaining food fights. Brown ones can be fun to watch too. A few cool brown ones are probably in your garden right now Herbivorous true bugs: Many are filled with nasty plant chemicals and warn predators with beautiful colors. Harmless unless eaten though. Darkling beetles (Tenebrionidae): Usually black or brown, but can have fancy shapes. Like carabids, adults normally long-lived. Do beware that many online websites think that the mealworm darkling (used as lizard food) is the only darkling. There are many species. See my article here https://sp-uns.blogspot.com/2017/11/misinformation.html Since many of these are almost unknown to science it is wise to be cautious; however, the above all have many easy species to keep.

Thread bump! If you train yourself to speak taxo-gibberish some of the names can be understood quite easily giganteus: giant rufipes: red foot a number of bugs are also named after Greek/Roman mythological characters

From McMonigle (Allpet Roaches admin)’s Invertebrates for Exhibition: Gromphadorhina = sow’s snout portentosa = portent; the hiss can be used as a warning signal

I do know ladybeetle larvae are more needy than the adults, probably because the adults do not need to grow. Haven’t raised larvae, but research papers have plenty of documentation on this.

Oh, and I would like to add a second, more significant bit from page 64: ”Nymphs may starve to death in the midst of many foodstuffs...” Basically, I’m too lazy to open up my PDF, but there’s something there that says adults are hardier than nymphs, for reasons I forgot.

https://books.google.com/books?id=R7eVRP08kasC&q=Nymph#v=onepage&q=Ontogeny of habitat use&f=false Page 38: Ontogeny of habitat use @Xenoblatta, I highly recommend this book. The google version is not 100% free, but a completely free version is around somewhere on Researchgate. Not only is there a lot of good information, but a number of tropical cockroaches mentioned inside (or their close relatives) live in your area.

http://arachnoboards.com/threads/madagascar-hissing-cockroach-barely-moving.304596/

Welcome to Roachforum! I’m coniontises on Arachnoboards. Any potential helpers: here is the original Arachnoboards thread, to avoid redundant questions and answers.

Uhh... bag every wild non-termite blattodean within ten miles and run for your life? If you don’t, they will probably mistake every single roach for a German and charge you additional fees for the supposed infestation Just kidding, but since knowledgeable exterminators are few and far between you should be extremely cautious. If you find one that is actually sane (by pretending to be clueless and asking questions like “Will (insert harmless termite here) infest my house?”), good for you. If not... @Matttoadman

Ooo, oo, let me dig up a book quote...

@Xenoblatta, is there a wet season and dry season in Megaloblatta’s ootheca habitat? If so, the dry/wet cycles would be a good idea If wild oothecae are in a constantly wet place, your springtail and mud idea would be more suitable.

Wow, that’s an interesting theory! There’s a thread on Luridiblatta trivittata, and it was discovered that the oothecae should be kept dry for a while and then moistened to cause hatching. When moistened, the ooths puffed up before hatching.

Magnolia was already broken a while ago. Gave Coniontis a taste test. Failed, will continue to cook them in rot box

I have noticed the same thing in reverse: many nocturnal arthropods do not react to any kind of dim lights. With many of the poor-vision species, especially web spiders, even bright light fails to trigger a response; they often even continue obliviously chewing prey.

I have plans to do a similar thing too! unfortunately, they are only plans

Also, @vfox and @Hisserdude: the thread that Tleilaxu mentioned has pics of japonica in it by CodeWilster. I checked his shop (theroachlab.com), but japonica is currently not for sale.

@Tleilaxu! By the way, there was another Periplaneta photo thread around here. Shall we revive that one instead?

My loquat leaves appear to be rather fresh off the tree. https://sp-uns.blogspot.com/2018/02/rotten-leaves-update.html

Mmm, buttery (as insect hobbyists, our purpose in life is to drool incoherently at pretty species)

Ignore the Coniontis; its dry lettuce is just for fun Since leaf fermenting hasn't been tried before, we cannot know for sure until the results show themselves. I will think about adding a third container with both dirt and leaves, just to experiment.

Thanks, all.

I leave dried lettuce in the Coniontis jar Interesting, I may have to dig a lump out of the garden. My 2015 leaf-rot attempt did produce isopod-edible stuff; have you personally tried making rotten leaves yourself?

a particularly rank and soggy forest The dry leaf thing is good to know, but many beetle groups do prefer their leaves well-rotted.

Welcome! Bugsincyberspace enjoys using Therea domino roaches and other colorful species to remove fear.