Jump to content

Hybrid Hissers


Recommended Posts

There's been a little bit of interest in these guys, and now that the first generation has reached adulthood (maybe?) I wanted to share a couple of pictures. The colony has been self-limiting, so either there is something wrong with the nymphs where they aren't making it very far or some of the adults are sterile (or both), but I'm not even close to overrun and I've had them a year and a half now. I am seeing some new nymphs finally, but I doubt they'll survive for long.

Anyway, when I cleaning the bins I came across the two gigantic males that were so massive I had to stop and get pictures. I really need to get back up there to weight them just because I'm curious. :) They're not long, but they are hefty!

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hymale1.jpg~original

Same two males with a full-grown "giant" female G. oblongonota for size comparison:

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hymale2.jpg~original

One of the previous males with another hybrid male:

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hymale3.jpg~original

I think this is a male and female hybrid. (It's either this one or the next pic. I was only able to find one larger female but I forget the order I took the pictures in!)

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hymale4.jpg~original

And I think two more males:

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hymale5.jpg~original

Group shots:

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hygroup1.jpg~original

http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k104/wodesorel/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/2013%20pics/hygroup2.jpg~original

It's kind of fascinating to see what genetic traits are being thrown off by each individual roach. All of these came from a single starter pair of hybrids. (There is a female P. Vanwearbecki floating around in there somewhere but she hasn't been in long enough to have produced anything more than medium nymphs, if she produced anything at all. So none of these adults would have her genetics in the mix.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Looks like the combo created huge morphs mabye your onto something! That might account for the slow breeding but doesn't mean they aren't healthy just that they produce fewer offspring because they are larger in size.

I think they are cool, the colors are fantastic!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

The roaches coming out of this colony are just massive. I don't consider myself squeamish around bugs anymore, but these guys are so big it's a little disconcerting when they're out and hanging on the glass or basking on the branches.

It also doesn't help that the males are ornery cussbuckets. Good luck trying to hang onto them with those leg spikes! And hiss... hoo boy. They want to be boss, that's for sure. The females are a lot calmer thankfully.

The biggest male weighs 20 grams, the two smaller ones are 16 grams, and the females weigh in at 13 grams. Is that normal for a large hisser? Especially if they're all turning out to be this large when mature? I have G. oblongonota from Kyle and they're nothing even close to these big guys even though they're adults and reproducing regularly.

Some comparison shots to give you an idea of scale. The bottom of the tub they are in is 4 inches wide, and while it's sort of hard to see in the photos the males when stretched out are curled up the sides!

The three biggest hybrids. The heaviest one has the longest and most defined horns!

http://wodesorel.her...ds/DSCI0369.JPG

Two of the biggest hybrid males with one of the two largest G. oblongonota I have (happens to be female).

http://wodesorel.her...ds/DSCI0356.JPG

Average hybrid female on the left, the other largest G. oblongonota female on the right.

http://wodesorel.her...ds/DSCI0381.JPG

And for fun

The three amigos with the biggest male Alueropoda I've got

http://wodesorel.her...ds/DSCI0373.JPG

And with an average Question Mark male

http://wodesorel.her...ds/DSCI0378.JPG

And as always, if anyone has any ideas on lineage on these guys, thoughts would be appreciated! :) I'm thinking they have to be more than one species with some of the traits that are being tossed up, but I got them through a friend of a friend and I've never been able to get a hold of the person who supposedly started breeding them in the first place!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What are the hybrids a cross of?

The horns are amazing on those males, are those second gen hybrids?

I saw hybrids from giant parents and the offspring ended up being dwarfs so its amazing yours produced giants instead.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously don't know. I got them from my pet shop lady who got them on trade from some guy, and then she lost contact with him. All she was able to tell me was that they were "hybrid hissers". Their parents were wide but otherwise normal sized and I figured them for a cross between portentosa and oblongonota, but then this generation is like - woah. They stem from a single male and female that I got as full adults.

Mom & Dad: http://s86.photobucket.com/user/wodesorel/media/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/hissersfeb.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26

This is my second gen, but who knows how many generations the other guy had. They're all turning out huge, so it's kind of interesting. Not a lot of them are making it to adulthood, they're not having a lot of offspring, and they're taking nearly a year to mature. (Not having this problem with any of my other hisser species!)

The horns are really cool on these guys:

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06277.JPG

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06280.JPG

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06281.JPG

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is a lone female vanwaerebecki that was added after the other female and two males died. (Didn't want her to be alone and wasn't planning on ordering more anytime soon.) Honestly, she matches their coloration so well I couldn't pick her out of the crowd if she's still alive. If she reproduced then her nymphs should be hitting adulthood sometime next year

I'm sure there are also some younger oblongonatas in there, too. Every so often I find a nymph wandering around after I do heaving cleaning, so I pop them into the hybrid tank since I don't know what they are by just looking at them. (Had an alueropoda molt out once! Poor thing was so confused.)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The original mom looks similar to large morph vanweirbecki which are mostly black but could also have oblongonata in meaning hybrid. Father looks like a hybrid too possibly portentosa and oblongonata, but if not portentosa most likely. So that means you could have 3 even 4 different DNA of hissers mixing making all new varieties!

Since you are getting really impressive results why not try to keep the giant morph bloodline going mabye you can patent them as new morph? All your roaches are beautiful though some would be great for classroom pets or if there are insect zoos or for pets they definetly are not boring to look at!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I seriously don't know. I got them from my pet shop lady who got them on trade from some guy, and then she lost contact with him. All she was able to tell me was that they were "hybrid hissers". Their parents were wide but otherwise normal sized and I figured them for a cross between portentosa and oblongonota, but then this generation is like - woah. They stem from a single male and female that I got as full adults.

Mom & Dad: http://s86.photobucket.com/user/wodesorel/media/Cockroaches%20-%20Exotics/hissersfeb.jpg.html?sort=3&o=26

This is my second gen, but who knows how many generations the other guy had. They're all turning out huge, so it's kind of interesting. Not a lot of them are making it to adulthood, they're not having a lot of offspring, and they're taking nearly a year to mature. (Not having this problem with any of my other hisser species!)

The horns are really cool on these guys:

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06277.JPG

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06280.JPG

http://wodesorel.hermitcrabgarden.com/images/Roaches/Hybrids/DSC06281.JPG

Your very last photo, looking at the males right horn, am I seeing things or does that horn have 2 points almost like 2 horns fused together creating one giant horn?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The ones I'm raising are on 4th molt, thought they were full grown because their horns are nearly the size of the ones on your males, today I discovered some on 5th molt and they are huger now! Some even said its possible for 6 molts, if that's the case I know I'll have record breakers!

How many sheds did yours go through to become adults?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

I am going to buy some Elliptorhina laevigata, when I will have a colony of them I will try to mate them with an Elliptorhina javanica.

The project will start in January.

This is a Elliptorhina laevigata:

ellipt.%20laevigata%20002.jpg

E.laevigata%20035.jpg

Cool, let us know the results!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just want to say that if this forum has taught me anything, it's about the importance of keeping species in culture pure. I did not mix these guys myself - they came this way. If anyone is thinking about experimenting with hybridization of any species, please make sure that they never ever get confused with or get mixed into pure stock! I'm not posting about them to encourage people to try it. I'm not even really sure how I feel about. I just wanted to report what I'm finding out. :)

And I think I may know part of their issue with reproduction. It was seriously almost as large as she was! I didn't think they would attempt to make an oothica that long. There's 26/27 egg segments in the photo (so something like 52-55 eggs total), and she was still attempting to building it as it was aborting. :/

roacheggs.jpg

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Now that the invert room is nice and clean and organized I've been spending more time just hanging out in there. I've noticed that there isn't as much variation in the adult hybrids as I originally thought there was. In fact, every adult - male and female - in that tank has a protonum that is scooped so much that most of their head is visible and it is uniform across all adults. Compared to the oblongata I have from Kyle, it's very noticeable that the shape is completely different. In trying to figure out what traits could have been passed from the base species to create that, the closest comparison I can find in photos is P. vanwaerebecki "Big Black". So either these guys are pure P. vans (which I'm actually leaning towards), or they're a cross between that and perhaps G. grandidieri.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...