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Gynandromorph Hisser: Half Male, Half Female


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Hello all,

I've been lurking for a good while, but haven't gotten around to introducing myself yet. I am a behaviorist/zoologist/comparative psychologist. I do some research in invertebrate learning and behavior, and I also use them sometimes for classroom demonstrations. My advisor traditionally used honey bees, but I have grown fond of roaches. You can actually handle them without getting stung (which kills the bee) and you can use them year round. They are just more fun than bees in pretty much everyday. Expect more on roach learning and behavior stuff later.

I have 100 or so Gromphadorhina portentosa from Fluker's Farms (or at least G. portensosa-like hybrids). I lost count of how many Panchlora nivea I have (from Roach Crossing). They didn't do well at first, but once I figured out a good setup, the population exploded. I've also been catching brown-banded and american roaches at school. The brown banded roaches are already all over the place in my building, so I might as well have some in a container right? When it gets warm enough to ship I might get more species of hisser and some glowspot roaches.

I'm finally posting because I have something interesting to share. Check out this roach. It is a gynandromorph hisser! The first few pictures are before molt, and the last few are after molt. I'm not sure what molt it is on, but I suspect it has a few left. Notice that after the recent molt the male side has developed a horn and a feathered antennae. Unfortunately the roach's genitals now hang out. Hopefully that won't lead to any complications. I'm not sure what to expect in terms of lifespan and future molts but I'll do my best to take care of it.

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I also prefer roaches way over bees for their gentle nature as you do. I love all species whether indigenous or exotic. Their color varieties and wavy antennae are another factor. Sounds like you really care about them and I'm impressed. I hope they live long for you as well.

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And pictures from the current morph.

Are you willing to sell one, I've been looking to buy one and pay whoever can ship it to me. I have a 20 gallon tank set up for my pet hissers (no breeding) so this one would fit in perfectly.

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  • 1 month later...

The gynandromorph is on its way to Keith. Sorry Katie, I meant to get a picture for you, but I forgot about it until the roach was all boxed up.

Thank you! I will be sure to get a photo of the underside once he/she gets settled in :)

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  • 1 year later...

Thats awesome! The giant males I had from those batches of babies are starting to die off, its sad. They were so huge and now I've got so many that I can't fatten up a batch of babies like that! But all the females are all doing good. I wonder how long this boygirl will live.

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God, how much I'd spend to get a dead specimen like that in my pinned collection... NICE find! I hope he/she/it lives a full life. Then we can talk about deadstock ;) I wonder if that specimen is able to reproduce.

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Thats awesome! The giant males I had from those batches of babies are starting to die off, its sad. They were so huge and now I've got so many that I can't fatten up a batch of babies like that! But all the females are all doing good. I wonder how long this boygirl will live.

I'm not sure but it's super healthy and chewed through my cork bark decor to make a nice hideout in the cage ?

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God, how much I'd spend to get a dead specimen like that in my pinned collection... NICE find! I hope he/she/it lives a full life. Then we can talk about deadstock ;) I wonder if that specimen is able to reproduce.

The male side is slightly messed up, and female side is quite narrow. It doesn't try to mate with females and males don't try to mate with it. It kinda just coexists peacefully with them all.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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