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What is my roach doing?


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My adult roach is behaving oddly, she/he/it positions itself at and angle and appears to be gazing at the top, every few minutes she will twitch her/his/it's body as if something touched it, but nothing was there, it carried on this behavior for a few minutes, then casually went about her/his/it's business.

IMG_20170606_005156.jpg

@Hisserdude @wizentrop @Allpet Roaches

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Here you can see just how much of an angle she/he/it takes when it engages in the behavior.IMG_20170606_010805.jpg

Edited by Tleilaxu
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No idea man lol, would just chalk it up to weird roach behavior, who knows what's going on through it's head!

Doesn't seem like it's being induced by stress or any physical problems or anything, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. :)

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1 hour ago, Tleilaxu said:

You don't think it's calling for mates? *I know they generally only mate once*

Can you even tell it's gender from the photos I provided?

Eitherway I'm glad it's of no concern.

Well generally, I'd expect them to raise their abdomens in the air instead of their heads if they were "calling" for mates, as that's where they release those pheromones I'm pretty sure. No idea if roaches do that though, but mantids do, and they are closely related. :)

It looks kinda like a female to me, only way to be sure is a ventral shot of the last abdominal segments though.

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One of the first things that springs to mind is parasitic infection inducing insects to climb to high, predator-exposed places. Although I have absolutely no idea if that's the case here, or if it's something that affects this species! (Which is that, the american roach you caught?) I don't want to cause any frets. Though out of curiosity, is it generally in high places - on top of cork etc. - when it behaves like that?

'Course, another reason for that (and why I'm jumping to daft... not so much conclusions as theories) is that it could be 'scenting the air'. But then I don't know if roaches even do that.

TL;DR: I know nuthin'.

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@Hisserdude I will see if I can catch it again, without unduly stressing everyone else. Give me a few minutes. I also know that calling consists of raising the abdomen as well, but at the same time I've never seen roaches court before so...

@WarrenB Even if it was a parasite causing this behavior, without it's next host, it will die with the roach, and cannot spread. That said the roach is quick to stop said behavior if it's disturbed.

Now get ready for some hot X rated roach shots. :P

 

 

 

Too hot for TV man.

Edited by Tleilaxu
Removed now useless pics.
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10 hours ago, Tleilaxu said:

@Hisserdude I will see if I can catch it again, without unduly stressing everyone else. Give me a few minutes. I also know that calling consists of raising the abdomen as well, but at the same time I've never seen roaches court before so...

@WarrenB Even if it was a parasite causing this behavior, without it's next host, it will die with the roach, and cannot spread. That said the roach is quick to stop said behavior if it's disturbed.

Now get ready for some hot X rated roach shots. :P

Too hot for TV man.

Thanks to your steamy ventral shots, I can confirm that is is a female, very good looking individual if I do say so myself! :P So if she was WC as an adult, expect lots of little babies!

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15 hours ago, WarrenB said:

One of the first things that springs to mind is parasitic infection inducing insects to climb to high, predator-exposed places. Although I have absolutely no idea if that's the case here, or if it's something that affects this species! (Which is that, the american roach you caught?) I don't want to cause any frets. Though out of curiosity, is it generally in high places - on top of cork etc. - when it behaves like that?

'Course, another reason for that (and why I'm jumping to daft... not so much conclusions as theories) is that it could be 'scenting the air'. But then I don't know if roaches even do that.

TL;DR: I know nuthin'.

The only parasite I can think of that would infest a cockroach and change it's behavior is the horsehair worm, but those don't make their hosts look up into the sky thoughtfully, rather they make their prey drown themselves so that they can exit the host body and breed in the water. Then their eggs will enter a vertebrate host when they drink the infested water, then exit in their frass, which then gets eaten by any number of invertebrates, some of which will be infected and turned into the horsehair worm's new hosts. :D

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8 minutes ago, Hisserdude said:

Thanks to your steamy ventral shots, I can confirm that is is a female, very good looking individual if I do say so myself! :P So if she was WC as an adult, expect lots of little babies!

I'm sure the Surinames will appreciate it, if said female misplaces her ooth.

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1 hour ago, Tleilaxu said:

I'm sure the Surinames will appreciate it, if said female misplaces her ooth.

That's true lol, if she doesn't adhere and then cover up her oothecae onto a piece of wood or something that's above the soil level, those surinams may eat them right up!

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I think its looking for a mate I isolated my female peppered roaches and they displayed similar behavior. I tried to feed a male American roach to a centipede one time and it molted. The centipede ignored it and for 2 weeks it ran around with its wings curled up in a mating display.

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