Leaderboard

Got the opportunity to draw some of my roaches for a school assignment These are just sketches, but I would love to do some nicely rendered art of them soon. I would love to see more art of bugs while I'm here! If any of y'all wanna share your art here, please do

Hey guys, it's been a long time since I've posted anything (or have been involved in the invert hobby for that matter). Long story short I'm back into it as of a few months ago but that info will be for another post. After posting the above photo of my bug tubs on Facebook the other day, I had some people want to see how I made them. Because I had more to make, I figured I'd photograph the whole process and post it here. Of course, there's a million ways to make practical and effective colony enclosures. This is simply what I do for mine. They work fantastic for just about all species (including pests). For all of you DIY out there, hopefully this inspires you. It's a very simple job but does require some tools you'll need to pick up or borrow. What you'll need... The tubs can be purchased at Target - this particular size runs for about $7. There's a few other matching larger sizes available. They have a blue gasket around the sides which keeps roaches from sneaking out. Besides the tubs you'll also need a drill, hole saw (same size as vents, the one above is 3"), clear silicone sealant, various razor blades, cutting surface, no-see-um netting or mesh of similar type, and the vents. The vents come from THIS website. The ones I use are the "open screen tab style" (in mill) - they come in all different sizes. I primarily use the 2", 3", and 4" sizes. The vents come with these tabs. You certainly could use them like this, but the tubs I'm making I wanted to be able to keep fungus gnats from freely entering/exiting the tub, and to also keep the tiniest of roach nymphs in. Because the vents aren't fine enough for that, they need to be reinforced with no-see-um netting. In order to break off the tabs, just bend them back and forth several times until they pop off cleanly. Mark your center on the tub lid where you'll be using the hole saw, and then pre drill a hole using a bit that is just a tad smaller than the hole-saw attachment's bit. If you're going dead center in the lid, there's already a mark there actually. Use a high speed setting on the drill so it drills/melts without much pressure. Next, drill the 3" hole using a 3" hole saw. Best way to do this is with the lid on the actual tub and the sides latched to keep it in place, and then hold the tub itself in place while drilling. I recommend a slower setting on the drill for this. Try to drill directly downward and start slow, then increase speed gradually as you feel it smoothly cut. You want to apply even, slight pressure. Push too hard and the lid will crack. I've done about 80 of these containers and have only broken ONE. It was one of the first ones though, and that's when I learned what the lids can/cannot take. As you can see, this is obviously pretty messy and is best done in a garage. After cutting the hole, pull off all of the excess plastic strips by hand. Then, using a razor blade (ideally the type pictured) very carefully smooth out any rough edges and excess plastic that could get in the way of the vent rim. You should end up with a nice clean hole like this that is ready for the vent. Next, you'll want to cut a piece of no-see-um netting to reinforce the vents with. I got the netting off of Amazon for about $10. This was for a pretty big sheet that lasted for a good 50 or so vents of various sizes 4" and under. It's fine enough to keep those pesky fungus gnats from flying in and out (the gaskets on the tubs also prevent this) and therefore creates a pretty much "gnat-resistant" container. Additionally, you can keep Blattella species this way and not have to worry about nymphs escaping while the lid is on. As for cutting, place the netting on a cut-safe surface and using the vent as a reference, liberally cut a piece of netting that's about an inch larger than the vent on all ends using a razor blade. You'll see why to be liberal with the excess mesh in a second... Next, add a very thin line of silicone around the rim of the hole. I chose to use silicone but don't see why you couldn't use a hot glue gun for this project. Afterwards, gently lay the sheet of no-see-um netting over the top of it. Next, add a layer of silicone around the inner rim of the vent. I wouldn't use more than pictured here as it will gush out the sides when you put it on and silicone is a pain to wipe away. Obviously too little doesn't do the job either, so try to match the amount pictured here. With the mesh relatively tight (pull a couple ends) go ahead and insert the vent right into the hole. It should fit perfectly. You can swivel it side to side a bit to even the spread of the glue underneath. Using a very sharp razor blade, now you can cut off the excess mesh. If there's not much excess it's difficult to do this and that is why I recommend cutting the screens liberally. If you have enough to grip with your fingers around the sides, you can cut it nice and cleanly. As you can sort of see in the photo, you'll want to pull the screen so there's slight tension for cutting, and then cut it while simultaneously putting pressure directly down onto the vent (with both your other fingers and the blade itself). This will keep it in place while cutting. Once you've cut off the excess mesh you'll want to double check the vent is sitting level. Because silicone takes quite a while to dry, you'll want to let it sit overnight at least. The hole saw itself makes a good weight that you can leave on the vent to help it dry correctly. And that's it! Now you've got a good-looking, gnat resistant, escapee resistant invert tub. Of course this was just a how to for installing the vents. You can always get crazy and do more for those species that require more ventilation. I hope this was helpful. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask. By the way, leave the stickers on the tubs and save your receipts until you're done. That ONE tub I broke (below) I was actually somehow able to take it back to Target and exchange for another one

EDIT, Nov 2019: In light of new information, this species is NOT Hormetica apolinari, but Hormetica strumosa. A little less-showy than their relatives, Lucihormetica, these are a new addition to the hobby. What they lack in glowspots they make up for in size, robustness, the presence of prominent horns in males, and behavior. They are also quite prolific. Hands down one of the most rewarding species to keep.

Hello there friends, I've started breeding these magnificent species. Paratropes phalerata is a diurnal cockroach that lives on live plants. In some literature has been cited as an important pollinator :-) I've been trying several ways to keep them... At the beginning I've tried to emulate an habitat with the same plants I usually find them on. But it's been a little tricky and not necessarily better in captive breeding. So at this moment I'm keeping most of the groups I have in small boxes, with good ventilation and moist substrate, and barks for them to perch on, just to keep looking for the best way to breed them (Different foods and that stuff)... They like sweet fruits like mango... ;-) I already got some oothecae, they stick them to... anywhere hahaha Sticky side: ;-) But this one on the plantae is really how they lay their oothecae in the wild: As I said before... barks seems to be just fine :-p Incubating eggs apart: Some other pics :-) This is a perfect display cockroach!!! is really funny to watch them walking around the boxes and kind of communicate each other by touching their antennae. They are visible and busy during most of the hours of light, but not like looking for an escape, rather just wandering around the barks and soil. Sometimes I watch them taking a determinate route and taking a bite of food in every lap Next step: A big planted terrarium for all of them, with dishes containing pollen, sweet fresh fruits and some other foods with high flour content ¿Has anyone of you breed these before? Your suggestions would be very grateful :-D

A photo to give some sense of scale. As you can see they are pretty massive. I'm a guy in his mid-30's, so my hand isn't exactly small. You can see a female in the back.

It's time to welcome another new species into the hobby - Lanxoblatta rudis! This beautiful bark roach is native to South America. They are flat, and I do mean *flat*, because they spend most of their time on tree bark, feeding on moss and fungi. Adults are dark maroon in color and bullet-shaped (photo is of a female, males look the same just flatter). But the nymphs... oh, the nymphs! They bring me much joy. They have body extensions that give them a disk shape. This is an adaptation against ants - nymphs will hunker down and merge with the bark when provoked. I will post more photos below. This species requires some experience in husbandry, but once you get them going they are very rewarding to watch. They are active despite their cryptic appearance. I would rate their breeding difficulty as intermediate. They require a smooth bark substrate (cork is not a very good alternative, it is too rough), high humidity, and minimal ventilation. Not very picky eaters. Not good fliers, but excellent climbers. Females give birth to 20 nymphs or so.

Roachforum is the oldest of the existing invertebrate forums. Thanks to every member and especially Peter of BIC for keeping it alive. The costs and competing groups that come and go could easily have fizzled it out without such support.

Got a pair of this species from Roachcrossing the other day, they are the largest Lucihormetica in the hobby, and are quite beautiful! Hopefully they'll breed for me! Male Female My male L.grossei and subcincta together for a size comparison, as you can see, grossei is quite a bit bigger!

Hello friends! :-) Spoiler: Yes, I did it, but... Some months ago I've start my first topic here in the forum, asking for information about care and breeding of the genus Megaloblatta, to find that as it seems, there's not any available information at the moment, and... that every known attempt of breeding this genus has failed, specifically at the point of incubating their oothecae. First topic here: Now the news... As you can see in the other thread, I've started with 4 nymphs, but one died in my process to find their right food. Impressively the other 3 survived my clumsiness to reach adulthood. I've learned over this period that they could receive conventional roach food (cat/dog food, fish flakes... oats), but in very low quantity, and they really loved sweet fruits, specially mango and bananas. And the most important: the right protein source seems to be raw meat... I use chicken hearts that they eat with a lot of passion Fresh molted nymph: Adult female: The ooths are huge (between 4-5 cms) Between the 3 survivors, I've got only one female... that laid only 4 ooths during her life. And here started the tricky part.... for after around 5 months the first laid oothecae was spoiled, fly worms emerging from inside. And then the second one!!!... Of course I was doing it wrong. So I took the determination of dissecting the third oothecae to check out what were happening. And I've found alive healthy embryos forming themselves inside... so the real problem were during the hatching. I've been really careful at the moment of dissection, and the eggs inside survived enough to hatch :-) And they seems to be the first generation of Megaloblatta breed in captivity. Pictures (Notice the antennae shape... they are much shorter in proportion than in big nymphs... that's adorable!!!) I have around 40 of them... and I'm already finding new details about them, for example... they are not interested in the same kind of fruits than the big ones likes, but I don't want to provide any information about it until having a real experience with it. Personal conclusion: Of course dissection is not the right method to hatch these ooths, but I was desperate and it worked for this time... at least I have enough individuals (much more than at the beginning) to keep on breeding and try something better next time. I have already an hypothesis... It could be that the oothecae case is very strong and hard in some Nyctiborinae species (because some other breeders and myself have found the same problems with some of their species), so perhaps the oothecae have to undergo a process of degradation by the environment during the incubation, something similar to the scarification process in some species of plant seed's. I would risk to affirm that that's why, in this case, M.longipenis lay ooths in "dirt places" (for I've found my girl released ooths covered with substrate in really muddy spots). So at the moment of hatching the ooths should be weak enough to allow the nymphs emerge, which is not possible with the aseptic methods that breeders (including myself) use to use... I will try to incubate next generation really moist and with a lot of springtails and as always... I'm open to you suggestions :-) Best regards!

A lot of people have been asking me about the species of Panchlora in culture, and why I price the white roaches differently than the others. More specifically, people wanted to know about their size difference. I took a photo to show you the sizes of Panchlora "white" and P. "speckled", compared to P. nivea. Please note that my P. nivea come from a wild population, so they might not be P. nivea at all, but their size is identical to P. nivea that is in culture. These are all unmated females. P. "speckled" is slightly bigger than P. nivea, and Panchlora "white" is even bigger. You can also see the color difference between the species, but I'll note that the light conditions for photographing them were not ideal. Panchlora are known to be very reflective. Besides the body color, you can also see differences in the color of their antennae.

I'm very happy at the moment as I got 10 Schizopilia fissicollis nymphs today from Nicolas Rousseaux! They are beautiful (in my opinion at least)

My title has been updated to Rhinoceros Cockroach, for reaching 2,500 posts, which is the highest title you can get! Never thought I'd get here lol, thanks to everyone on this forum who has helped me out and supported me over the years, I really appreciate it!

I just wanted to post a little bit more about me and my roaches. As I mentioned on another thread, I happen to be blind.. this of course means that I experience my roaches in a tactile rather than visual manner. I have hissers, and I find them extremely easy to handle and also fun to listen to when they hiss.. As for care, I feel I must reassure people that my being blind does not impair my competency in providing care to my roaches, or myself for that matter! If you wonder why I add this, you might be surprised by the number of people who are under the mistaken impression that blind people can't take care of themselves, let alone roaches. Ok, mini rant over. For my part I am a grad student living in a small apartment, and I find my hissers to be the perfect pet for this environment. They are very easy keepers in my experience and do not seem to be bothered by my touching them as some other creatures migh be. This post is also menat to explain why I might ask someone to describe in words a posted picture. I was able to see for several years and do understand colors and shades of color. I also wanted to post this in case any of you had questions about caring for roaches while blind, questions about my blindness in general or anything else related to what I have written here.

Cockroaches are white following each molt and it can take a few hours for normal coloration to return.

For everybody wondering about the e-mails I've sent with the professor (who is also a biochemist) who has been posting research on roaches since 1966, I will copy those below. Granted, there are over 4,800 species of roaches and no single person has researched them all to any great degree, so take away what you will from the questions and answers below. I personally have a small breeder colony that I've had less than two months, so I am not an authority on roaches of any species. I'm simply a technical person by nature that has a touch of self-diagnosed OCD who found so many websites with conflicting information that I decided that I wanted to ask someone that I felt would know roaches better than 99.9% of the people posting information on forums. My apologies to anybody I may have misquoted in my questions to the professor. The text in gray are my questions, and the professor's answers are below in black. Question: I have a bearded dragon that I feed Dubia roaches to as a feeder insect, although I am enjoying raising a colony of Dubia as much as my bearded dragon. I may also start raisin Orange Head roaches or others in the future. Question: I'm assuming that most roaches have similar nutritional needs as far as protein and other requirements. Is this true? Troy, Yes. All cockroaches have symbiotic bacteria living in their fat body which synthesize most of what are vitamins for vertebrates, since they cannot produce them themselves. The cockroach can eat a very un-nutritious diet and thrive. The cockroach is also very economical with nitrogen. They can store excess nitrogen (rather than excrete it) as uric acid in their fat body in cells called urate-cells. This urate can be metabolized by the bacteria and turned back into protein nitrogen for use in protein structures. They can thus survive when they are provided with low nitrogen food. Question: Also, Repashy.com had quoted you on their site (based on making their 'Bug Burger' better for roaches) as saying “My initial reading of your composition is that it has too much protein (>20%). 4% protein is sufficient to support Blattella germanica and if it is >20% they will accumulate waste uric acid in their fat body which could be lethal in certain situations.” Joe That seems to be an accurate transcription of what I have told, whoever asked me about needed protein content of a roach diet. Question: What would you recommend for feeding a colony of Dubia roaches or Orange Head roaches to keep them healthy without providing too much nitrogen/protein? I know nymphs need more protein as they grow, and adults need less after reaching full size, so is there a happy medium, or if I feed two food sources, one with high protein and one with low protein, will the roaches feed off of the correct food source to level out their proper protein requirements? I want to both feed my bearded dragon healthy food, and I want to keep my colony as healthy as possible. The 4% protein diet should satisfy all stages. You can produce some happy medium with a minimum of work by allowing them to choose their own diet but forcing them to get some of their moisture from vegetables such as carrots and potatoes that provide more filler that is low in protein and provide a restricted amount of the ~20% protein from readily available dog/rat chow. Question: I apologize for the length of this e-mail, but there are so many people stating incorrect information that I don't know what to trust. Also, what is the protein content of a roach? I've seen people state anywhere from 20% to 65% protein. I have no idea. That is not a basis on which I make any decision and have never measured it for any of my projects. The protein in their hemolymph varies tremendously and I have published on that in several species. http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/roachrefs.html Question: What does healthy roach scat/frass look like? A dark brown such as this? http://www.mcgarryandmadsen.com/inspection/Blog/Entries/2016/1/18_What_does_roach_poop_(fecal_pellets)_look_like_files/shapeimage_1.png This picture is not high resolution enough for me to recognize it as roach scats. Here is a URL to Periplaneta americana scats from a culture that had restricted water so that their scats are relatively dry … but the animals are still healthy. Gorse seed is interspersed with the scats as a size standard. http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/roach_husbandry/Gorse+CRscat_labeled.JPG Roach scats can vary tremendously depending upon their water availability. Lots of water makes messy scats and a polluted cage. I usually provide water in tubes with a cotton plug. Also I provide a clean environment for them to eat, drink and grow such as shown here: http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/jpegs/B_germanica-18000-2875.JPG http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/kunkel/jpegs/B_germanica-dish-2877.JPG In my research lab I vacuumed out scats and food debris on a regular basis. The above dish could hold up to a hundred 6th instar Blattella germanica. Your Dubia roaches are larger and would be reared in shoebox or blanket box containers depending on stage. I would adjust their food and vegetable and water access to avoid them fouling their containers. A good balanced nutrition will produce healthy cockroaches that will be healthy food for your lizards. I do not necessarily suggest spending all the effort I have made to produce research grade synchronized cultures of cockroaches but, when rearing the easy way in mass cultures, it is hard to maintain a uniform healthy culture. It would not be my way. (2nd e-mail) Question: You said, "The cockroach can eat a very un-nutritious diet and thrive." In the long run, considering breeding colony health and the health of the roaches fed to the bearded dragon and its health, do the items put into commercial roach chow do anything to increase roach health, reproductive virility, speed of nymph growth, etc.? Items such as bee pollen, spirulina, chlorella and strawberries, various vitamins, or is it mostly just sales fluff in your opinion? Or is the old adage true as well for roaches, “You are what you eat”? Troy, I am not aware of commercial roach chow. If I were rearing large numbers of roaches I would follow my research results as I explained in my last mail … aiming at a 4% protein diet and provide occasional fruit. I actually ate bananas myself and put the peals in the large tropical roach blanket containers. Question: Does it matter what the source of nitrogen/protein is for roaches? No. The cheapest and easiest to store free of pests would be my choice. I had an animal facility from which I obtained Purina rat chow essentially for free. It was 18% protein and I pulverized it and cut that down to 4% protein with potato or corn starch and compressed it into tubes. That much work might not be worth the effort as I suggested earlier. Question: One gentleman on the forums is saying plant based protein is safe for roaches and protein derived from purines is more harmful and causes the higher uric acid/urate content which can cause gout in bearded dragons. I am trained as a biochemist and I have never heard or read the idea "protein derived from purines”. Proteins are composed of amino acids. Purines are one of the base types in nucleic acids DNA and RNA which are minor components of most foods. Uric acid is a purine as well as guanine which are well known nitrogenous wastes of insects and spiders. I am not sure where you would find a natural food that is totally free of purines. Vertebrate proteins (meat and organs) are higher in nucleic acids but one would not likely feed your roaches expensive vertebrate meat or organs. Plants are cheaper and in general lower in both protein and nucleic acids. Again, my focus would be in lowering the protein content of the food to 4-5% and let the other minor food components decrease in the same proportion as the dilution. A plant based meal such as oatmeal would be a good base. Raw oats are 17% protein and are the basis of many animal chows. Most plant protein, e.g. oat protein, is lysine poor. That is why being a vegetarian is a problem … humans are omnivores by evolution and we get our lysine from eating at least some animal protein. However, the bacteroids in cockroach fat bodies produce lysine so oatmeal is a fine source of protein for cockroaches. Serious herbivores have an active appendix in which the bacteria also produce lysine for the herbivore. Question: Or is it simply the amount of nitrogen/protein, no matter the source? Yes. Question: You said you vacuumed out the scat and food debris on a regular basis. Do you mean every few days? There are people on the forums, as well as established website companies selling feeder roaches that have had breeding colony’s for years that say not to clean the scat but once every 3 months or so, where another has said to let the scat accumulate until it is about 3 inches deep as the nymphs burrow in it and eat the undigested food particles out of the scat. In general I did not raise in mass cultures. You and your friends should trust your experience of what works for you. Question: Several forum members swear “oranges” make the roaches reproduce faster or give birth to a higher number of nymphs. Does this make sense? I am not sure what that would be related to. Nobel Prize winner Linus Pauling swore we should all be eating mega-vitamins and particularly Vitamin-C. He died at 93. Question: Is mold really that harmful to roaches? Roaches harbor numerous molds with no ill effects. There are molds which will actually kill cockroaches. I sent my two sons through college based on profits from selling high grade synchronous cockroaches to a company EcoScience which was developing a mold based cockroach trap that was very effective and worked on the basis of attracting roaches to eat a bait laced with a mold spore that they would carry and transmit to fellow roaches killing all the roaches in a building and providing spores that kept the roach population down for as long as the spores survived. So, beware bad mold. Your mold likely came from your supplier’s culture and thankfully was not a danger to your culture. There are many thousands of innocuous mold species. Cheers, Joe

Neat whip spider from TX. I only had one for a while, but I managed to collect 10 on a trip this week!

I know this isn't super relevant as a subject to discuss, but I'm just so excited! My library decided to accept my purchase request for For the Love of Cockroaches by Orin McMonigle, and now they have it! I have never hit "Place Hold" so quickly in my life! I can't wait to learn all about roaches and finally decide on a species for my next colony!

Another point of view on a male:

I drove 3 hrs to pick up these guys. LOL Ugh....I still regret not bringing enough money to buy P. bolivari

Posted by cj on 12/25/2006, 5:41 am 71.38.75.227 We have all white roaches taking up residency in our house. now i don't know much about roaches other than i can't kill them because i find them to be quite cute ( and i truly believe that roaches are psychic) anyway i was just wondering what the white ones were. and also there are the other ones here that look like crickets/roaches...i call them croaches. the lady that lives upstairs has a tree frog..she feeds it crickets and roaches and i think they interbread ( i know interbreading between species is possible, infact my grandma had a cat that bread with a dog and had babies..they didn't live very long at all, only a few days but they looked beyond this world!) anyways i just wanted to know what made the roaches white. cjwirth3@yahoo.com

Now in culture there are adults of both sexes. Some females already have ooteca. I hope for a rich brood Male on the photo:

As some of you may know, my username on all the invertebrate forums is "Hisserdude", so true to form I thought I'd create a reference of what the PURE hobby Gromphadorhini are supposed to look like, since we are facing a mislabeling epidemic that threatens to inadvertently eradicate pure hisser stocks from the hobby over time, making lines less and less unique and different from each other. All coloration norms mentioned here are for adults, unless otherwise specified. Hisser nymphs of even pure stock can vary wildly in coloration, and thus their coloration usually can't be used when determining whether they are hybrids or pure stock. All of these pictures have been pulled from various sources online and are all of pure bred individuals. I've given credit to the photographers under each and every photo, if someone wishes to have their photos removed, please contact me and it shall be done.Basic hisser anatomy that I'll be referencing in this amateur "key", (my own picture of a Gromphadorhina sp. "Hybrid" male): ----------------------------------------------------------------Aeluropoda insignis:(Flathorn Hisser) Characterized by their noticeably flat appearance, and overall dark brown/black appearance with red highlights. Females and juveniles often have more red coloration than the males do, and the brightness and intensity of the red coloration is often greatly exaggerated in photos due to the camera flash.So far only known to hybridize with pure Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tiger"/"Tricolor". Most, if not all stock sold is pure. ©Josef Dvořák ©ArachnoVobicA ----------------------------------------------------------------Elliptorhina chopardi:(Dwarf Hisser) Characterized by it's small size, black/dark orange pronotum, orange mesonotum and metanotum ending with darker borders, and mostly crisp orange abdominal coloration with very little to no darker striping.Can probably hybridize with other Elliptorhina, maybe small individuals of other Gromphadorhini as well. Most, if not all stock sold is pure. ©Josef Dvořák ©Piotr Sterna ---------------------------------------------------------------- Elliptorhina cf. coquereliana: (Dark Dwarf Hisser) A recent addition to Blatticulture, one I hope we'll see in the US sometime soon! This rare species is only being cultured by a handful of hobbyists ATM, so information on them is scarce. They are characterised by their distinct coloration, adults have a black base coloration, with orange strips on the anterior sections of their mesonotum and metanotum. They have pale spots on their thoracic pads, and they also have thin orange stripes going across all their abdominal segments. Coloration is pretty consistent between individuals, and should not vary much at all. Major males have very pronounced, pointy horns, but small males have horns more similar to those of chopardi or javanica. ©Philipp Byzof ©Philipp Byzof ---------------------------------------------------------------- Elliptorhina davidi: (Bumpy Hisser) An extremely rare hisser cultivar easily characterized by the heavily granulated (bumpy) exoskeleton of most individuals, but most noticeably nymphs and females, (males usually have rather smooth abdomens). The pronotums are either black or reddish, with the mesonotum and metanotum being a creamy orange ending with thick dark margins. The abdomen is usually a rather dark orange, no striping. Current stock is very difficult to rear and can be prone to random mass die offs, something not seen in any of it's relatives. Could possibly hybridize with other Elliptorhina or other small Gromphadorhini individuals, but as far as I know, no one's ever made hybrids of this species, on purpose or by accident, as they are so rare in culture already. As such, all stock sold is probably pure. ©Lubomír Klátil ©Cody Will ---------------------------------------------------------------- Elliptorhina javanica: (Halloween Hisser) This species is characterized by it's relatively small size and striking coloration. Adults either have black or red pronotums, the rest of the body is a bright, creamy orange color, with alternating bands of darker orange and black on every segment. Can probably hybridize with other Elliptorhina and possibly small individuals of other Gromphadorhini. Most, if not all stock sold is pure. ©Oscar Mendez ©Roachcrossing ---------------------------------------------------------------- Elliptorhina laevigata: (V-horn Hisser) A somewhat rare species that's characterized by it's large size for an Elliptorhina, and yet slender build compared to other large Gromphadorhini, as well as the namesake "V" shaped horns on the adult males' pronotums. The base coloration of adult males is dark brown/black, with dull orange abdominal striping and thoracic pad spots visible on some individuals. Females have much more orange on their thoracic segments, and their abdomens are usually a dull red-orange with black striping. This species can probably hybridize with other Elliptorhina and Gromphadorhini, however due to it's relative scarcity in the hobby, no such hybrids appear to have been documented. All stock sold seems pure. ©Gabriele La Corte ©Cody Will ---------------------------------------------------------------- Gromphadorhina oblongonota: (Wide Horn Hisser) A commonly cultured hisser species well known for it's large size, dark mahogany color, and the unusual width between the horns on males. Pure stock is easily characterized by consistent coloration of the adults, they should all be a dark maroon color, some individuals may have lighter spots on their thoracic pads and down the middle of their mesonotum and metanotum, this is normal. Larger males often have a large "scoop" on their pronotums. Large nymphs are dark brown/black and often have white spots on their thoracic pads, and white gaps in between the abdominal segments. This species can hybridize with other Gromphadorhina and maybe certain Princisia strains. If your colony has black or light brown/orange adults popping up, or very small adults that look more like G.portentosa than oblongonota, it's safe to say your colony has been hybridized. Most stock sold of this species appears to be pure, but hybrids are out there, so be careful! Adults. ©Roachcrossing Nymph. ©Ondřej Machač ---------------------------------------------------------------- Gromphadorhina portentosa: (Common Madagascar Hisser) This is the OG hisser, once the most commonly cultured species, and unfortunately the species who's name is used to label the majority of hybrids in the hobby... There are a few different imports of this species, but pure stock of the oldest import, (the one without locality information, and the only one currently kept in the USA) is characterized by a relatively smooth exoskeleton, black pronotum, mostly orange mesonotum and metanotum with dark borders, little to no dark abdominal striping and crisp, orange to red-orange abdominal segments. This coloration should be consistent with very little to no variation in each generation. Most current pure hissers in the US come from descendants of a culture maintained by the Cleveland Aquarium for many years, they apparently got theirs before the saturation of hybrids in the market and never added more bloodlines or kept other hisser species, which means they are as pure as can be. They also get noticeably larger than most hybrid "portentosa" stocks. There are a number of "portentosa" color morphs out there, mainly black or dark brown morphs, however I don't think any of them came from lineage traced pure stock, most are almost certainly from hybrid lines, as extreme variability in coloration from the normal orange is typically the most obvious signs of hybridization. One verified morph that's been selectively bred for over time from the pure Cleveland Aquarium stock, the "LLE Mahogany" morph, features both normal looking adults and very light colored ones. Unlike hybrid color variation, this coloration had to be selectively bred for over multiple generations before there was any noticeable difference from normal portentosa. There are two more imports of G.portentosa being cultured in Europe, Gromphadorhina portentosa "Masoala, Madagascar", and Gromphadorhina cf. portentosa "Ranomafana, Madagascar". Both have slightly darker coloration and perhaps more black striping on their abdominal segments than is typical of pure individuals of the pure Cleveland stock in the US... However, keep in mind that while wild G.portentosa coloration is probably quite variable, unfortunately in captivity, color variation, especially lots of dark individuals in "portentosa" stocks, is usually an indicator of hybridization with other, darker hissers like Gromphadorhina oblongonota or Princisia vanwaerebeki. Pure colonies of the old import in the US have probably inadvertently been line bred for lighter than normal coloration over the years, so when we see colonies of the older import that have a lot of darker individuals popping up, be they black or dark brown, this is usually a sign of hybridization. Newer imports like the "Mosoloa" and "Ranomafana" probably throw out darker individuals because they are haven't yet been line bred inadvertently for any specific coloration, however these lines should always be labeled with their localities and hopefully won't be hybridized much in the future. In short, if you see Gromphadorhina portentosa for sale, be sure to check if they're labeled as "Pure", (or if they are from the newer two imports), compare them to pictures of known pure stock, and if necessary, ask around and do some lineage tracing, (for example, if the stock looks completely pure and comes from some random hobbyist, who got theirs from Roachcrossing, who got theirs from the Cleveland Aquarium's colony, you should be good). If things don't add up and the hissers do not match the description above or the pictures below, then it's relatively safe to assume they're hybrids, most currently sold G.portentosa stock is. Pure Cleveland Aquarium Stock. ©Roachcrossing "LLE Mahogany" Stock. ©Roachcrossing "Masoala, Madagascar" Stock. ©Cafarnarium "Ranomafana, Madagascar" Stock. ©Cafarnarium ---------------------------------------------------------------- Gromphadorhina sp. "Madagascar - Unidentified": (No Common Name) This is a fairly recent, unidentified import in the hobby. This species is characterized by it's relatively large size and width, as well as the dark pronotum, rusty red abdominal coloration, (females often have dark striping), and faint dark markings alongside the lighter abdominal margins. Some adults have somewhat bright orange spots on their thoracic pads. At first glance, this species can look like oblongonota, but the pronotums of this species, particularly the males are notably different than in oblongonota, being far less rounded and more squared off in shape. This species is actually closest to portentosa, and may represent a local form or even an undescribed subspecies of portentosa. Adults can vary quite a bit in length, but the largest can supposedly reach ~85mm, rivaling G.oblongonota in length and apparently surpassing them in width and bulk. This species has proven to be rather slow growing compared to other Gromphadorhina and still remains rare in the hobby. Be sure to compare coloration and pronotum shape to the pictures below when determining if stock is pure. Adult male. ©Loach's Roaches Subadults. ©Loach's Roaches Left to right: Male G.oblongonota, male G.sp. "Madagascar" ©Loach's Roaches ---------------------------------------------------------------- Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tiger" & "Tricolor" (ex. Gromphadorhina grandidieri) (Tiger Hisser) The US stock of this species is characterized by the black/reddish black thorax, and the abdominal segments being a creamy yellowish coloration with black striping, (males often being a bit lighter than females). Females usually have red spots on the sides of the pronotum, and both males and females have red spots on the thoracic pads. Individuals will occasionally have a light patch on the metanotum, or a dark line going down the middle of the abdominal segments, along with other very minor striping variations. Adult males should have shallow but noticeable notches on the front of their pronotums. Jet black individuals can very rarely pop up in cultures, and some claim to have isolated a "Black Tiger" morph of this species. However, most, if not all "Black Tigers" on the market today are just black "G.portentosa" hybrids... As for the majority of individuals, there should be no huge variation in the striping pattern, if the pale abdominal coloration has been replaced with a dull brown or orange, the black stripes are incredibly thick and/or very abnormal compared to the below individuals of US stock, or some individuals don't have any stripes at all, these are signs of possible hybridization. In the US this species has been erroneously labelled as "Gromphadorhina grandidieri", however real G.grandidieri look nothing like these AT ALL... According to George Beccaloni, the taxonomist behind the CSF who's also working on the Gromphadorhini and has gone on hisser collection trips in Madagascar himself, says that these are most likely a distinct locale or perhaps even an undescribed subspecies of Princisia vanwaerebeki, and should be labeled as such. He notes that while the pronotum shape of the adult male "Tigers" is a bit different from that of the average P.vanwaerebeki "Big" or "Androhamana" male, they're still more similar to that species than any other, with a shallow but noticeable notch present in the anterior margin of the pronotums of adult "Tiger" males. The shallowness of the notch, along with the consistently smaller horns is likely due to the overall smaller size of the "Tigers" compared to the other Princisia locales, likely due to geographical variation, (or them being a new vanwaerebeki subspecies). Their abdominal patterning is also rather similar to that of the holotype of P.vanwaerebeki, there's no other described hisser species with abdominal striping anything like that. In Europe there is a strikingly similar strain of hisser labeled as Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tricolor", which in my opinion probably originated from the exact same stock as our "Tigers", and are just labeled differently and were perhaps inadvertently line bred for slightly different coloration, (it seems they took a little longer to get established in Europe than in the US, and may have originally come from US keepers). However I'm not 100% sure the "Tricolors" and "Tigers" are one and the same, and a lot of "Tricolor" stocks appear to have been hybridized, so we in the US should still keep the "Tiger" moniker for our stock IMO. This species can hybridize with other Princisia and Gromphadorhina species, which leads to a lot of really dull looking hybrids with base abdominal colorations of brown and some darker brown striping, and some individuals that look nothing like "Tigers" at all... They can also hybridize with Aeluropoda, making flatter, more dully colored individuals. Most stock in the US is pure, pure stock in Europe appears to be nearly nonexistent now though, with pale, stripeless "portentosa" looking individuals popping up in many cultures, something that never seems to happen with pure "Tiger" stock... US stock. ©Roachcrossing US stock. Color a bit dark due to lighting, note metanotum spot. ©Roachcrossing Supposedly true Gromphadorhina sp. "Black Tiger" morph. ©Roachcrossing Europe's Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tricolor" stock. ©Cafarnarium ---------------------------------------------------------------- Princisia vanwaerebeki "Black & White": (Black and White Hisser) This breed of Princisia used to be characterized by the mostly black pronotum, black mesonotum and metanotum with small, dull red spots on the thoracic pads, and the abdominal segments being a creamy white with thicker black striping than the P.vanwaerebeki "Tricolor". Nowadays though, all stocks of this strain are quite similar to P.vanwaerebeki "Tricolor", only being differentiated by having darker, smaller dots of red coloration on the thoracic pads. There should be little to no variation in coloration, especially no highly dark or stripeless individuals, to be considered pure. See the P.vanwaerebeki "Tiger" & "Tricolor" description for notes on the ID of this strain, which also probably represents the exact same locale or subspecies of P.vanwaerebeki as those two, just purposely or accidentally line bred for different coloration. This stock can hybridize with other Princisia strains, and almost certainly Gromphadorhina species. Pure colonies of this stock appear to be rather rare in culture, (outnumbered by "Tricolor" and "Tricolor" hybrids), and care should be taken to preserve what few cultures there are left that do appear pure. Be very wary of hybrid stocks when looking to obtain this strain. Old stock ©Jörg Bernhardt Old stock ©Jörg Bernhardt Current stock ©Cafarnarium ---------------------------------------------------------------- Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big": (Vibrant Hisser) This was once the most commonly cultured Princisia form, unfortunately there are probably almost as many mislabeled hybrids of standard P.vanwaerebeki as there are of G.portentosa... Pure stock of this Princisia strain is characterized by an overall dark brown/black coloration, with red spots on the thoracic pads and yellow/orange borders on the margins of the abdominal segments. Some individuals have darker or thinner abdominal borders than others, with males sometimes having very thin borders, but none should completely lack the margins and none should have actual thick striping. This general coloration scheme should be rather consistent, with no major variations, (like chocolate brown individuals, ones completely lacking yellow/orange abdominal borders, light colored "portentosa" looking individuals, etc.). Pronotum structure is also very important when differentiating pure stock from hybrids. Pure Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big" males should always have a noticeable "scoop" in the pronotum, as well as strong horn structure. Hybrid Princisia have very variable pronotum shapes, some males having scoops, others lacking them, and with horn structure that looks rather wimpy at times. Pure colonies of this strain are known to be quite finicky compared to other hissers, which may be why they are less common than the more virile hybrid stocks, (pure stock is very rare in the US right now). Some people don't use the strain name "Big" when selling this species, which OK for now, considering there's only one pure Princisia strain in the US ATM. Doesn't necessarily mean they aren't pure, but be sure to check for color consistency of course, from any colony that's supposedly from this "default" Princisia strain... Note that this strain, while considered by many to be the "default" Princisia strain in culture, doesn't look much like the holotype at all in terms of coloration... This species can hybridize with other Princisia and Gromphadorhina species, and many "G.portentosa" colonies appear to be hybrids of portentosa and this Princisia strain. Most stocks sold of this species are hybrids, check very carefully for coloration of the stock you buy and receive. If they're a mix of all black, very light, thickly striped, normal and/or "portentosa" or "oblongonota" looking individuals, and males have very variable pronotum shapes and horn structure, it's safe to say they're hybrids. ©K.I.D. Kucharscy ©Roachcrossing ---------------------------------------------------------------- Princisia vanwaerebeki "Androhamana, Madagascar": (Vibrant Hisser) This more recent import of Princisia vanwaerebeki from Androhamana Madagascar is very similar to P.vanwaerebeki "Standard/Big" in general color scheme, but males have an abdominal striping pattern more similar to that of the "Tiger/Tricolor" stocks. So the base abdominal coloration is a dark tan color, with black stripes. Females barely have any tan striping on their abdomens at all, and are a little more similar to the P.vanwaerebeki "Standard/Big" females in patterning. Both sexes have black pronotums, mesonotums and metanotums, with reddish-orange spots on and right next to the thoracic pads. Adult males have prominent pronotum scoops, as is typical of this species. They are a close match to the holotype specimen, more so than any other Princisia strain in culture, and being a recent import kept by a select few careful breeders, they have yet to be hybridized! However, their general appearance can actually be quite similar to that of various Princisia hybrids in the hobby, so it is imperative that people always label this strain with the locality "Androhamana", and that keepers take the utmost care in keeping their colonies pure, as telling these apart from hybrid stocks may be tricky, (though one would likely expect a higher amount of variability in coloration and sizes in hybrid colonies) Male, standard coloration. ©Cafarnarium Same male, different lighting, note the striping. ©Cafarnarium Female with full abdomen. ©Cafarnarium Female. ©Cafarnarium ---------------------------------------------------------------- I hope that this amateur "key" to the hobby hissers has proven useful, I'll try to keep this page updated with any new hisser species that enter the hobby. Hopefully we'll get some more new species and strains in the hobby soon, and hopefully we can preserve what pure stocks we already have by labeling hybrids correctly and taking measures to prevent accidental hybridization, (don't add "new blood" to pure colonies without being absolutely sure they're pure too, make sure all hisser colonies are completely escape/contamination proof, etc.). 😁

Thanks. My plan was for this setup to emulate a tree fall in a tropical forest with rotting wood habitat and some of the plants you would find in that kind of situation. This kind of habitat is always a good place to find insects and other invertebrates as well. I placed a particular emphasis on vining plants because many of these are characteristic of forest openings. There are also a lot of botanically-interesting vines to collect and grow. Here is a quick list with most of the plants in there... Aristolochia macroura Banisteriopsis caapi Cissus antarctica Ficus sagittata Piper sintenense Passiflora aurantica Passiflora sanguinolenta Another thing I had in mind was for the terrarium to be relatively easy care. While these vining plants can grow pretty fast, it is easy to trim them back and every time I do I have cuttings for propagation of new plants. In addition to the B. fusca I also added Porcellio dilatatus, Porcellionides pruinosus and Trichorhina tomentosa. I also recently introduced a group of Hemiblabera tenebricosa. These seem to be compatible and OK with the Blaberus so far. I link some photos to show the basic set up. The soil substrate is just a shale gravel blended with orchid bark and charcoal over an egg crate false bottom. I also have some newer photos to show the planting more grown in and I'll try to upload + link some of those as well.

I managed to make some photographs of my new roaches: Corydidarum magnifica. The nymphs are still quite small (8mm / 0.31inch) and I took the photographs through the glass of their tank, so the quality isn't optimal.

Hey guys, it's been a little while since I posted here, I have some somber news to share. I have been dealing with some severe anxiety and depression issues for the past few months, and I kinda broke down a couple weeks ago. This hobby has unfortunately been causing me a lot more stress than happiness lately, possibly because I have too many species. It's also taken up almost all of my available time, and has prevented me from participating in any of my other hobbies or spending quality time with my family. So, after some soul-searching, I have decided to all but leave the hobby. I have gotten rid of almost all my invertebrates, and only plan to keep half a dozen species for now, (might even get rid of those though, time will tell). I will also be very minimally active here on the forums, so this is probably the last you will hear of me for a while. I want to give a huge thank you to everyone who's helped me along the way by supplying me with invertebrates, giving me husbandry info and advice, and those who just gave encouraging words. I will forever be grateful to all of you, and this forum in particular will always hold a very special place in my heart! Sincerely, -Tristan

After collecting cockroach activity in my collection for more than a year now, I decided to make some graphs. Each graph is made up of 505056 datapoints (measurement every 10 seconds for 2 months). X-axis: hour of the day Y-Axis: Activity level and light level in the enclosure. Among the most interesting ones are the Therea bernhardti graphs. There you can see how the nymphs are active during the night, in contrast to the day-active adults.

The magical moment of birth

Received 6 of these in a trade with Alan Grosse, (who's got an awesome new website), man are they beautiful! Hopefully they'll do well for me, I know they aren't the easiest of the Spanish isopods for sure!

Got a sexed pair of nymphs and a pair of adults from @wizentrop, this may be one of the most unique roach species in my collection, hopefully they will breed for me! Nymph: Adult male: So happy to have this species in my collection, they are just so cool looking!!!

Looks like I need to send some Periplaneta to your house on the next shipment. lol

Hello there friends! I'll be adding pictures of some of my weird breeding... Let's start by introduce this amazing species Phortioeca phoraspoides

Hey friends, I've been breeding these since some time ago... Is the first Periplaneta species I've ever kept and I'm in love with them :-) The overpopulation in my colony works pretty well as occasional feeders... Ñom! She likes potatoes

The next generation is doing quite well. This is only a small fraction of the new babies.

A group of small nymphs

After sending some of these out, I wanted to post an article regarding their care since they are a tricky species and are recommended for advanced keepers. Firstly, as you read this, know that quite a bit of it is completely my own experience and observations, speculations, etc and don’t assume it to be pure science by any means. I am posting this simply because, like so many others, we want to figure out how to successfully keep as many cockroach species as possible in captivity. Others had failed with this species including myself, but now I’m happy to announce that I think we’ve cracked the code. I wanted to share that information here and I'll be posting additional updates as I work with these guys more and more. Also, before you get too excited about this species, keep in mind that they are TINY, they can climb anything, and are very sensitive to too much moisture. My container for them was my standard small target tub like in THIS post. Probably bigger than necessary, but it works. The vents are reinforced with no-see-um netting to prevent escapes, and the gasket takes care of this as well. Here are a couple photos of their specific setup. Bedding is a coco, cypress chips, and sand mixture, covered in a layer of dry moss and dry oak leaves. The cork bark seems to be useless as I rarely see them on it. They prefer to hang out in the corners under the leaf litter. One corner has water crystals as you can see. A little background: Luridiblatta trivittata, the Three-lined Cockroach is a tiny species of Ectobiid cockroach that has within the past decade or so been introduced into northern California. They originally are from European mediterranean countries including Italy, Israel, etc. and somehow found their way to the west coast of the USA sometime around 2006. They’ve spread throughout the greater bay area and seem to continue their spread throughout the region with reliable reports from Healdsburg south into Palo Alto (I’m sure they are well outside of this range by now too). Though they occasionally wander into homes, they do not appear to be a “pest species” and spend the vast majority of their time beneath leaf litter outdoors. Many people assume them to be german roach nymphs due to their similarities in coloration/pattern to Blattella germanica. My specimens were originally collected as adults from a park in Larkspur, CA. For care, this species needs things BONE DRY. They begin to die off if kept too moist in stuffy air. My bug room is about 30% humidity and this is probably due to all of the other moist roach containers and a couple house plants, since the rest of the house is in the low 20s or even lower (I live in Phoenix, AZ). They also prefer it warm (80+F). I had some do just fine in a container in 100 degree weather outside. I don’t recommend keeping them at room temperature long term though they may be ok in it especially as nymphs. My original specimens were collected in thin leaf litter on hard, dry dirt that was in the direct sun most of the day in Larkspur, CA. Of course, they do need water one way or another and are susceptible to desiccation like anything else. In my opinion, the best way to provide water for them is to use water crystals in one corner of the container. You’ll have to recharge them frequently. Maybe once a week I do a split second, light mist on the container walls and can see them sipping the tiny water droplets. I would imagine that 99% of their moisture in the wild comes from their food, and they do tend to huddle together in small depressions in the ground beneath the leaf litter which is a fairly common roach behavior to help reduce moisture loss. As long as they are kept this way, they grow very fast and soon you’ll have adults running around. My first adult male matured in 70 days, and an adult female popped out just a few days later. As far as food goes, common roach fare is just fine. Mine seemed to enjoy carrot, cucumber, apple, dog food kibble, etc. The photo at the beginning of this post is of two adult males. Here are some freshly hatched nymphs: The trick isn’t just getting the nymphs to adulthood though, I had an excellent success rate of rearing nymphs to adults in the above setup. The next tricky part is getting the oothecae to hatch. Thank God for Kyle Kandilian and his suggested reading to me that discussed how another Ectobiid roach oothecae (Ectobius sp) required sudden moisture to stimulate hatching. Shoot me a message if you'd like to see the paper. Turns out L. trivittata oothecae are the same, and are comparable to plant seeds. They seem to need to be kept very dry, and then cool/dry, and then sudden moisture and warmth in spring stimulates them to absorb water and hatch shortly after. Sounds complicated, but it’s really not. It basically follows the patterns of a Mediterranean climate. My biggest batch of oothecae hatched after just leaving them on the windowsill all winter with a slight misting once a month. Then in early spring they were brought into the warm bug room and I increased the mistings, allowing things to dry out in between. You know when they're about to hatch because they suddenly bloat up and lighten in color (again, kind of like a seed!) Eventually with the dry/wet cycle, you’ll come home to a container full of tiny black Luridiblatta babies like in the photos above. Below is a photo of the oothecae. The left 3 are basically normal oothecae not ready to hatch, and the three on the right swelled up after a recent misting then hatched several days later. The ones on the left eventually did as well with the warm and moist/dry cycles. I am currently culturing this species and plan to run some experiments to nail down their care even more accurately. This time around, I’m also trying to see if I can trick the oothecae into hatching much earlier in the year, hopefully to the point where there can be overlapping generations and that way they are not just a “seasonal” roach. Though I have my own group of F1s that are finally dropping ooths, I'm hoping to collect more this September for anyone interested in this species. Late summer is when adults (mostly females with ooths) can be found in the wild. I'll end for now with a couple more photos...

I'll do a roach room tour eventually. Hang in there

I may actually have some larvae available for sale soon, my colony is doing pretty good and is producing a decent amount of offspring. Will definitely let you know when I have some available!

Posted by keith on 12/30/2006, 2:16 pm, in reply to "White Roaches?" 68.241.207.246 i think they are just a albino of the common german cockroach have seen a few mixed in with the reg. ones

Inbreeding is not a concern with roaches, unless you purposely are keeping horribly deformed individuals in your gene pools and allowing them to breed with healthy ones (though most genetic deformities, rare as they are, are fatal, and kill the roaches before they can breed and spread those bad genes anyways). Most of the roaches in the hobby are only established in culture from a handful of individuals, and thus are inbred as heck, with no issues whatsoever. Some decades old stocks were started with literally single gravid females or pairs, and are still going strong.

Well, my two females are doing great, one matured, and the other's a subadult. I needed a male to fertilize them, and thankfully @Cariblatta lutea loaned me his. This is a childhood dream of mine in the making, finally pairing Macropanesthia rhinoceros!!! Hopefully the females will give birth next year! Adult female: Mating pair:

I made a trade with @CodeWilster for a group of these beauties, I received several nymphs and a few adults too, hopefully they'll breed well for me! Here are some pictures of an adult:

Here’s the same adult female I caught in the act with one of the males on Wednesday. I moved them next to my bed so I can watch them at night. Best decision ever 😂

Congrats on getting this beautiful species! Though Orin and Peter are the definitive experts on them in the hobby, I've been keeping them for about 7 months now, with a fair amount of success. The starting culture I work with is quite large due to its long term purpose, but I know of people who have successfully been able to culture large amounts out of groups as small as six. You'll get anywhere from 15-30 babies out of one successful pairing, though god knows it takes a while. In most cases adulthood takes about 8 months to reach, and gestation ranges 3-5. I have been told however, that these periods can be shortened if greater heat is provided, though I have not tried this myself. I keep my two groups in highly ventilated bins on a few inches of coconut husk topped by leaf litter, with slightly moist sphagnum in one corner to increase humidity. I provide both cork bark and egg cartons which serve (along with a high protein diet) to decrease antennae and wing biting. I will lightly mist the substrate once daily, and provide varied produce and protein sources, along with a consistent container of calcium fortified cricket gel. This setup has allowed me to see significant growth in my group of nymphs, and I have observed continued breeding in the large mixed colony I was able to purchase last month. Hopefully I will be seeing more babies soon! Oh, and I'm sure you've already figured this out, but your enclosure need to be crazy secure. Crazy secure. I hope this is a helpful report of my experience with this species, I want to end it by thanking the people from whom much of this care information came. A huge thank you to @Peter Clausen@Allpet Roaches@pannaking22@Hisserdude and the many, many others both on and off this forum who have contributed towards my work with this species. I wouldn't be able to work with these incredible roaches if these folks hadn't. Thank you all!

Hello! I want to show you some of my more uncommon [here in Europe] roach species. My foto size reduction is slightly better than in my last topic and I will further try to improve this. Melanozosteria nitida BRUNNER VON WATTENWYL 1865 (from Khai Sok in Thailand) Only under lights more redish than black, but look at the defensive secretion on their last abdominal segments. They are incredible fast runners. Thorax porcellana SAUSSURE 1862 (from India and Sri Lanka) Beautyful species from the Epilamprinae subfamily. Most fascinating are the baby cockroaches below their mothers wings for the first weeks. First rank breakout artists.

Adult roach:

Hatchlings, yay!

Been keeping this strain secret for a while. This strain is the work of Kyle (though I did provide some orange specimens for him to begin with)

Here are some of my Embaphion muricatum adults, these guys are one of the easiest to rear darkling beetles I've ever kept, and the development cycle is pretty quick too!