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Any pictures of the fusca hybrid - as adult? BR/ Ole

How long are they? They seem to be a fairly good size. BR/Ole

I have tried feeding E. posticus all sorts of insects, from fully alive to halfdead and dead, but nothing worked. But they prefer the high proteine fish flakes and they eat the dried sikworms that is also rich on proteines. ---- About the ant question, then they will not eat the ants, but some species live in a sort of mutualism. Some ants will bite off the antennas of certain roaches and keep them in the ant nest. The roaches get confused and loose orientation. So they wander around like cattle and is kept alive as long as the ants wants it... Certain Diptera (Conopidae) follow raiding army ants and paralyze cockroaches and lay eggs in them. Quite specialized. Some roaches live with the fungus growing ants where they live from licking secretions in connection with the chewing of the leaves. The common fact is that such species are adopted to their specialized behaviour over many many generations. However, to experience such mutualism in ones own hobby setup would be more than a challenge... unfortunately. BR/ Ole

In several European languages compote is just a general term for stewed fruits. But since baby food is quite expensive - could be because it is a functional food - it would be much better to prepare one's own dish - including fruits. Actually I am using the oldest fruit with the brown spots because for some reason at least for some species they start with the brown spots before the fresher parts. Could that be because of their quite different bacterial composition or because of smell ?? BR/ Ole

So you found the australean roach south in US, but how far north has it spread? To all states except Alaska, perhaps? BR/ Ole

5 month is a long time. However, I have noticed that if I change the complete layer of frass in the old bin with a new, fresh mixture, then the culture will start up slowly and if I look carefully fever nympth survive in the first time till it gets going again. My theory is that the nympth are eating the feces (think it is called coprophagia) to get started in their gut and then be efficient on all the different food that we all experiment with... So unless the culture is full of buffalo worms or similar, I have been adding at least 1/4 of the old material to the new. Have you similar observations or it could be more species-related with individual behaviour? BR/ Ole

Thanks Bugman. That could solve it if I am lucky. Zephyr, just to see if it was possible to find something inside Venezuela, I have sent a mail to the so called "principal contact" of ENTOMOTROPICA "Sociedad Venezolana de Entomología", a magazine there and asking them to point the right direction. Let's see what happens ... BR/ Ole

HeHe, yes, a pitty I get there too little.... But that Hugo Chávez fellow gives me the creeps.... and he is calling USA names... BR/ Ole

Thanks Bugman, Glad that you agree on the logic. Sorry that Venezuela was not amongst your references... Good joke about our plane-posticus... I can't help feeling reluctant to declare Venezuela as posticus-territory. Where else could such information be kept? BR/Ole

Here we normally lay out borax on the ant trail considering that it is not somewhere close to human paths so that it blows away. When the ants tread on it they try to lick it off and gets it in their stomachs. As the ant attack weakens, we usually vacuum all the ants and the remaining powder. But there are probably hundreds of advices and any pharmacist might advice you differently... BR/ Ole

Are any of you roach-enthusiasts having secure source information about the distribution of E. posticus?? When checking out 'The Catalogue of Life', the registrated places were shown as: Nicaragua; Costa Rica; Panama; Colombia; Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of (Trinidad); Guyana; Suriname; French Guiana; Brazil; Peru; Ecuador. If you plot these onto a map, it becomes evident that Venezuela is surrounded by countries having posticus registered - like an island in the middle of a sea of posticus.... Any registrations, private or organization, about Venezuela?? Should they not be found there as well?? BR/Ole

That must have spooked a lot of spectators ... considering the way many deal with large insects and arachnids... How is it possible to get one's roaches on the screen?? Did any of them die during the take? BR/ Ole

Well, you probably should not bring any pics... It must have been quite a sight. Do you remember which species was that tolerant towards one another? BR/ Ole

Roachman, Do you mean that you kept them too hungry or that the overcrowdedness was too high? BR/ Ole

Interesting mutation from natures side... Does he move in odd ways - or is it not even possible to tell when he walks? BR/ Ole

The picture has disappeared from the first post - is that correct? Please find a couple of recent pictures from here. The coloring and textures of these roaches must be amongst the favourites. Very nice indeed. The photos can not be uploaded - the upload capacity is over its limit - unfortunately you have to use the link... Adult tesselata, side view Adult, alert tesselata nymph, the coloring is very nice tesselata nymph checking up on the photographer... By using the advice of Matt.K it has been possible to minimize the phorid flies. So the substrate is now dried beech leaves. No water is sprayed - only fruit and vegetables are adding moisture to the colony plus occationally some water gel with vitamins. BR/ Ole

Whau - they are so delicious that his mouth waters upon spitting them out again... If you start swallowing - after how many will you be able to stop again? BR/ Ole

Is Zephyr the only contributor of pics? any pics with male & female together? So 'Allpet Roaches' by Orin says: 24-33 mm (1 - 1½"), males the much smaller gender... Males are with full length wings, but normal sized hind legs, whereas: Females have no wings, but long back legs used for flipping her over as a 'play dead' protective measure...? They do not climb glass, but are the they diurnal or nocturnal? Who will continue with feeding .... or breeding.... BR/ Ole

Spooky things happens on the upload side now we´re getting close to Halloween... Let us see if this attempt will work!? BR/ Ole

Hope that the attached file can illustrate a draft to what was the general idea. I might be mistaken regarding the containers used as terrariums for cultures. But these have been shown here. I am using glass-aquariums, so no remedy for demonstration, unfortunately. Precision lies in the moulding. Vaseline could be added as a means to keep nosy roaches out... I am not too well updated on the technical terms - hope you can abstract from that... The image is uploaded, but cannot be shown except as a link: (sorry for the inconvenience) Small sketch BR/ Ole

So these roaches live in a container with a lid. But imagine that you were having an optional opening which was vertical and where you could get a hand through to toss something in for instance. On such an opening you could place a 'curtain' of sliced-up plastic. When your hand passes through the opening, all the slices will bend and adapt to your hand, but at the same time still be a barrier against flying roaches. So they might give it s go, but they end up into the slices. Am I explaining it well enough or you want a small sketch of it? BR/ Ole

Zephyr, After joining this forum for some month now I feel safe to say that 'curious' must be our middle-name! However, I would not want you to 'de-foot' one of your specimens for this sake. Maybe it could wait till one dies of old age or a weak or small male needs to go as part af the 'optimization'? Now, bringing this subject up.... especially in my grandidieri culture there seems to be a lot of 'leg-biting' during the night - and only on females.... (Yes, you're thinking: It takes place by other species too.... ) Is that a sign of stress or is it 'normal' behaviour? The culture is somewhat overcrowded, but it seems ok since they have been given many hiding-places... BR/ Ole

Thanks, It gives a picture of somebody walking with Velcro under their feet. Ok - just joking. So it is mechanical and by turning the foot in a certain angle or way the hairs will let go easily from the surface? Otherwise exhaustion would logically occur quickly for a roach this heavy. Did somebody here use their microscope to take a picture of the hairs? Or would that require even higher magnification? BR/ Ole

A little lobbyism must be ok... Another candidate could be A.tesselata - many could participate/contribute there... So Zephyr and Buddylee79 will now agree on this weeks roach and start a new thread since they have equal votes?? Or did somebody vote after closing date??? "Gentlemen, You now have the vote from the 'roach jury' - Please reveal your decision!" ...holding breath... Ole

This P. vanwaerebecki was sitting on the glass partly supported by the root. In this position it obviously showed all - including the feet. On glass the white pads (seems to be 4 per foot) are adhesive - and quite strong, one might add. However, they can move pretty fast if their mind is set for it, so how do they do that? Whatever chemistry or mechanism - it has to be switched on/off all the time. Anybody ever found an explanation to that? BR/ Ole