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Picture Therea petiveriana


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Hi all,

some pictures of my Therea petiveriana adults. I managed to take care of them since they were about 6 mm, so the next step is to breed them. I've read in the Allpet roaches book that the males and females can be sexed with the comparison of the antennae. I don't succeed in telling the two sexes apart. Can somebody judge by these photo's that I have two different sexes? I know it's not easy, but I've learned the hard way that they can be very fast and run up vertical plastic surfaces like hell, so first I take my chances this way. Enjoy the pics ... ;)

tpetiveriana01au8.jpg

tpetiveriana02bv9.jpg

tpetiveriana03by5.jpg

tpetiveriana04ge1.jpg

tpetiveriana05lh2.jpg

tpetiveriana06ju1.jpg

tpetiveriana07cu2.jpg

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The photos need to be more brightly lit I think. I look at mine and can tell by the body shape. My vote is that out of the seven in the picture there are at least 5 males, one that may be either sex, and one that may be a female. But I cannot tell certainly without better lighting and/or spread out the roaches a bit.

In my colony, the males are a tiny bit smaller next to a female, have more of that concave curve in the wing/elytra. The females are slightly bigger with more of a dome shape to the body / less wing curve. In the 5th photo down you can see something of what I mean by the one on the right being male and the one on the far left being a possible female.

When I use terms like "slight", "less", or "tiny bit" I mean in very minimal terms.

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Thanks for the reactions!

It's a coincidence, but I think just yesterday a female has molted to adulthood. In that case I have about 10 males and 1 female (poor girl). She was not yet fully hardened when I went asleep so no pictures yet, but I'll post them as asap.

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I wanted to take a picture of the differences of males and females, but my girl had better things to do, so I didn't disturb them. ;) (the one on top is the female)

tpetiveriana11hg8.jpg

tpetiveriana08lm3.jpg

Of course, I'm 100% certain now that I have different sexes. :P

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All right, some pictures.

Adult male

tpetiveriana14ts6.jpg

Adult male

tpetiveriana16jz7.jpg

Adult female. Notice the short antennae and the abdomen that is visible from beneath the wings.

tpetiveriana12ve6.jpg

Adult female

tpetiveriana15so6.jpg

Together, the size difference is clearly noticeable.

tpetiveriana17sf2.jpg

A nymph which has had a photoshop treatment

tpetiveriana13kr7.jpg

A trio, the female is above in the photo.

tpetiveriana18an7.jpg

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Great photos Maarten!

Now, I know the differences between males and females, thanks!

How many T. petiveriana do you have? Do you also keep T. sp "grandjeani"?

Best regards,

Javier.

Right now, I have about 15 adults and some numphs. I bought 20 of them a couple of months ago.

I don't keep the grandjeani-species. I'm starting to have an overcrowding problem. <_<:lol:

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  • 2 months later...
  • 1 month later...
Hello,

That´s great Maarten! How did you keep the oothecae? Mines leave some of them and now I´m keeping the oothecae as adults. Am I doing it ok?

Best regards,

Javier

I never do anything special with the oothecae so they are handled just like the adults. They are pretty tough, I just pour water in the substrate when conditions become too dry. I also don't mind temperatures too much, the water is room temperature, so pretty cold in comparison to the warm substrate they lay in, but that doesn't seem to be a problem.

If you keep conditions hygienic things should work out fine.

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