Pharma

Hi Your dwarf hisser looks like Elliptorhina javanica (and not E. chopardi) to me . Maybe you should check out whether your new cam has also a flash *smile*. Grüessli Andreas

Salut Florent Bienvenue ici! Bonne question: Est-ce que nous enlevons quelques espèces eux n'ont pas? (Good question: Do we keep some species they don't have?) Grüessli Andreas P.S. Merci pour ta MP!

Salut Cedric Oui, j'habite en France (proche de Genève) et je serais intéressé aux Blaberus colloseus, B. fusca et Pycenoscelus hemapterus (ça dépends un peu de ma femme ). Bon, au moment c'est trop froid de penser à un échange... (Short translation for the other members: It's freeeezing cold here around!) Cordialement Andreas

Hi I did only fly over this post (might read it later in detail): No, there is one forum in France, and a few ones in Germany (well, actually only one still active) . Grüessli Andreas

Hi Zephyr Did you examine some Blaberus fusca and B. craniifer too? I wonder whether there is any difference... Grüessli Andreas

Hi "Miss_Hiss" What a pleasure to have someone else here speaking nearly Swissgerman . Besides (not that I want you to go elsewhere) there is one active roach-forum in Germany . Grüessli Andreas

Salut Bienvenue au forum! Tu as quelques blattes qui m’intéressent (parce que j'ai "perdu" quelques-unes pendant le déménagement à la France). Cordialement Andreas P.S. Excuse-moi, mon français est pas encore sophistiqué.

Hi You surely mean this publication: http://psyche.entclub.org/pdf/76/76-217.pdf I think it was 10% sodium hydroxide being used for discoloration. In the "phyto-lab" we usually use chloral hydrate for discoloration of plant material; no idea whether it also works with chitin and sclerotic insect organs... Grüessli Andreas

Hi Zephyr You did it! Are these just "raw" genitalia or did you prepare them somehow? Roth discoloured them with a base (was it 10% sodium/potassium hydroxide?)... I don't have an opinion right now but I miss the whole rest of the genitalia. Where are these spikes and the fine membrane also used by Roth for the identification? You know, only one individual doesn't make the whole species; there are always variations not only in size, shape and colour of the "outer roach-surfaces". But on the other hand, two different genitalia from one strain might as well be a hint for hybridisation... Grüessli Andreas

Hi Do you search for something like THIS or THAT? You'll not gonna find recent literature because someone found out somewhen, that B. fusca is just a synonym... Grüessli Andreas

Every G. grandidieri picture I ever saw looked absolutely the same like G. portentosa on my computer screen, just with that uniform dark brown. I do have some individuals beneath my G. portentosa looking pretty much the same *LOL*. Some say that here in Europe we have the G. portentosa color-morph 'G. grandidieri', the true G. grandidieri (maybe), and G. portentosa 'Black' (and presumably no one who can tell them apart).... it's a mess and that's why I ask for holotype photos and original descriptions with sketches. Or maybe someone skilled will paint me a 'comic' , but black&white please! Uppsss... and I fround the "True" G. grandidieri photos of wild living specimens on the blattodea species file site.

Hi Orin That's the one photo I found . I know that P. vanwaerebeki is believed to be a local form of G. portentosa (quod es demonstrandum) but this is not my real issue. Besides, I know that no one could ever find a difference in male genitalia. I wonder whether there are such photos or sketches for the other Gromphadorhina sp. like G. oblongata and G. grandidieri maybe even in direct comparison with G. portentosa. Grüessli Andreas

Hi I wonder whether there are photos of the different Gromphadorhina sp. available online. I just could find the one of G. portentosa. And are there original descriptions available (I love these old ink drawings, they say more than photographs) or a listing of the differences as originally stated? I do have pretty much of a difficulty to see the species differences (color excluded!) even though I know them (some) in theory*. A rough sketch indicating exactly the important ones would help me too. * These bumps/dimples, the 'pinched together' pronotum, setae, horn angle etc. but I just can't see it clearly (either I need new glasses, I'm just stupid, or I only have G. portentosa or some kind of hybrids). Grüessli Andreas

Hi Mark The guy renaming the domino roach cultured here in Europe (User Lucihormetica if I remember correctly) does genitalia dissections in general. I don't know whether he did it in the particular case because the report is not yet freely available (therefore I didn't read it). You might send him a PM? Grüessli Andreas

Good luck!! Here around it's nearly impossible to keep orchids in the garden, especially native ones (which is prohibited anyway). I'm restricted to tropical hybrids on the window board .

Hi Well, that mass coincidence hit me too ! Many of my roaches reproduce better when adding oranges or orange juice to their food. But I suppose it would also work with other fruits (but oranges for that purpose are reasonably cheap); but it doesn't as well with bananas. Grüessli Andreas

If it's dead for years it should be no problem. The "toxins" inside are mainly essential oils in the resin and they evaporate over time. These vapors could harm insects in a tiny enclosure and that seems to be the main problem; they won't eat it if there is still harmful resin inside .

Hi Ann & Rob Well, mine love more or less all roaches, including A. tesselata and G. portentosa (where you shouldn't feed the adult males!!!). I also have P. nivea but in my opinion the aren't worth it as adult Beardie food... too small sized ant too complex to breed. Greetings from Switzerland Andreas

Hi Well, if the air inside is 90°F, the bottom will be even some degrees warmer and then your ootheca just dry out and if they would hatch, the young nymphs would die of thirst soon. (If you mean 90°C it would be much too hot and 90°R would be far too cold !) Keep them at 75-80°F (maximally 85°F). Shelfordella lateralis (syn. B. lateralis) is for two reasons one of the favorite feeder species: The don't climb glass and they already reproduce at room temperature. It's not a (sub-)tropical species like most other roaches kept in captivity and therefore don't need such high temps; constantly 90°F would even kill most of these. Grüessli Andreas

YES! But don't ask me which one...

Well... obviously Google doesn't know everything... Now I found the Pink Lady's Slipper (Cypripedium acaule) as possible species -> it's not only the roaches where scientific names are favorable ! Paphiopedilum would also sound reasonable (when judging a small picture) if it would be native to the US (Wikipedia tells me they are not *lol*). I just found out that translating slipper into one of the possible German words gives Frauenschuh, the German expression for these kind of orchids. Besinds: The only "Frauenschuh" native to Switzerland is Cypripedium calceolus, a relatively rare species but if you happen to find one, you'll for sure find dozens nearby. Yes, that are photos I took on two trips here in Switzerland and the orchids are native ones. Neottia nidus-avis and especially Gymnadenia conopsea are pretty common in the mountains herearound.

That for sure is better ! You know, it isn't only living bacteria which could cause troubles but also their metabolites which don't degrade upon freezing a few days.

Uhhh.... I wouldn't feed the dead ones. You don't know which bacteria spread uncontrolled in there.

And a Coeloglossum sp., likely C. viride. One advantage of living in Switzerland seems to be that in terms of orchids we have the bigger biodiversity, such big, that I can't attach another (the last) photo I took of a C. viride with a different color .

A Dactylorhiza sp. and maybe an Epipactis sp.