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Distinguishing adult G. Portentosa large nymphs from adults


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I had this problem when I was sorting and counting adults in a new colony the Zoo received (104 adults, whew!). A lot of the adults were small and relatively narrow-bodied, and it was really tough to distinguish them from the subadults sometimes!

The characteristics I looked at were:

- coloration (not perfect, but in all the lighter color forms the adults' background color and black spots are distinct from the darker nymphs).

- pronotum thickness, shape, and rough/dimpled texture... nymphs tend to have flatter, smoother pronota.

- hissing (of course, not all of them wanted to do that).

- thickness and hairiness of antennae in adult males.

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If I have a roach and I'm not sure if it's an adult, the first thing I do is check the ventral abdominal structures and coloration. Immature hissers particularly do not have the adult "color scheme" on their belly, and the segmentation of an adult female has a much more complex, 3-dimensional appearance to it. I will get some comparison pictures later today.

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