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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 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

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

No, I just never bothered trying to get the UCR strain. It's hard enough trying to keep every bug on earth without trying to keep every strain.

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!

I don't think Flamingswampert was offended but then I also don't know what his/her short, non-descript message meant. I think it meant ignore the chatter but it could mean feathers are lighter than stones. I don't remember anyone questioning the validity of the extinct designation before but of course we still can't prove big dinosaurs are extinct with 100% certainty. I recall a movie suggesting a lost world full of them is in the hollow earth beneath an artificial sun. There maybe some Simandoa there too.

First time ever available in electronic format. Available through Coachwhip Books https://coachwhip.com/collections/invertebrate-pets/products/invertebrates-magazine-2001-2002 there are dozens of cockroach articles and features.

Hi! This is my report on a finding of an unidentified Perisphaerus sp. from South China, more specifically Macau Special Administrative Region (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macau). 1st March 2020, during one of my night anting (looking for ant queens), i found two small isopod looking cockroaches, one I was able to capture, the other one, escaped into the the existing crevices. It was my first local caught cockroach, but back then i had no idea what it was, and so I posted in facebook and someone helped if it as Perisphaerus sp. In an attempt to id the species, i contacted the local and only Entomologist (Dr. Danny Leung) to try to find if he knew what species this was. Unfortunately he didn't know, since he hadn't found any yet. He left me with one task, should I find a male, I should immediately preserve it in alcohol, and give him for an id attempt. Being extremely obsessed, i scoured the net, in search of more information on how to keep this species. I also managed to find the following research paper, which I share with you now. "Rediscovered and new perisphaerine cockroaches from SW China with a review of sub familial diagnosis (Blattodea: Blaberidae)" https://drive.google.com/file/d/1unAM5fGnaipGFx9GuZZ3NNGJXqHlTCRY/view?usp=sharing Few days later, i managed to take some photos of my specimen. I didn't know if it was a male or female, but it looked as a female to me :D Well, i was wrong, 21 days later it matured into a male. But i decided not to kill him just yet. At this moment I was going regularly to the same place, to try to find other roaches, and luckily I did manage to find one more! :D Again, this one looked like a female, but i had no idea how to sex them properly. They lived together for couple of months, and the male ended up dying. I took him out, put him inside alcohol and gave to the Entomologist. In the next 5 months, I managed to capture 3 female looking roaches and 1 adult male. These 5 individuals lived together quite happily! In this period, I also researched and studied as much as i could about their husbandry. And ended up changing their enclosure several times, until I ended up keeping them on an acrylic vertical enclosure, completely drilled with ventilation holes all around, with cork round pieces with likens attached, to serve as hiding places, and a very shallow substrate base. The male ended up dying in the beginning of August. And in the beginning of September, I was surprised by this unexpected sight Baby Nymphs!! 12 nymphs!! Keeping next to their mother!! I tried to just keeping doing what I was doing, and avoid any extra stress... The nymphs are developing well, and have started to roam the enclosure. On the 15th September, I found another female giving live birth ( or so i thought), but later i was corrected. So I should be having more nymphs soon! :D Today is 2nd October, I still have 4 females and 12 nymphs, with hopefully more to come. And I am yet to get a confirmation of what species it may be. Hopefully it will be a new species, fingers crossed! Hope you have enjoyed this report, let me know if you have any questions! Cheers, Martin

Earlier this week, I was presented with 7 middle aged nymphs Therea nuptialis (Gerstaecker, 1861). This species is very rare in culture, and for me, collecting Corydiinae, this is a very desirable acquisition. I hope that after the nymphs enter the imago, I will be able to get a sufficient number of ootheca and consolidate the species in my culture.

Substrate seems to be mainly a difference of pets vs feeders. Standard feeder containers make maximum use of vertical space with egg crates to pack a lot of roaches into a bin. That's the only function of egg crates. Zero substrate, is very easy to clean the dry frass, dead, and molts while not spending much time on the maintenance. I think of this as how people feed insectivores with the least amount of space and effort spent. Extra moisture in a bin with only paper, frass, roaches, and food can quickly lead to bacteria, fungus, pest insects, etc. On the other hand naturalistic containers with substrate, bark, leaves, branches, etc are perfectly fine. You're just replicating nature. There are hundreds of pictures of similar setups in the forum here. It's how tons more people including myself have kept reptiles for years also. The big difference is that the feeder bin i described previously isn't bio active. A little extra moisture (for short periods) in a naturalistic bin is perfectly fine when roaches are low density, and in balance. If someone thinks dirt and moisture are what kill cockroaches, there isn't much point arguing with them lol.

I'd say remember to feed and water them regularly, it may not seem like great advice but care is usually the only really important thing. I also recommend this book: https://www.amazon.com/Love-Cockroaches-Husbandry-Biology-Blattodea/dp/1616464275

Cockroaches are resilient and all, but their resistance to nuclear radiation is a bit exaggerated I think... If any animal group could be considered the "chosen ones", it's gotta be Tardigrades, those things can survive the vacuum of space and are quite radiation resistant.

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.). 😁

I do think any Therea species would look awesome in there, willing you have many adults in there at once, just unfortunate they don't live long once mature, which may leave the enclosure looking empty for a while. Also maybe some Lucihormetica or Hormetica like you said would be nice. I find my adult Lucihormetica verrucosa like to hang out on the surface on top of bark and such, but I do have a good amount of adults in one enclosure, and it might just be they are a bit crowded. Other than that maybe some large Blaberus species like Blaberus giganteus or even Archimandrita species would make use of it. If you had a way to contain the adults, maybe some Gyna species could make an interesting display if the adults are active enough. Just a few suggestions, but I'd have a hard time deciding myself.

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I brought over 100 Polyphaga saussurei cockroaches from the Kyzylkum desert. These are adults and nymphs of different ages and sex. Females now systematically produce ootheca, which are incubated separately. I do not plan to sell my cockroaches, but my dream is to create a wonderful, full-fledged culture of this species, where there are both females and males. As far as I know, all existing cultures are parthenogenetic, so I have a unique experiment In the photo there is a male and a female from my collection

The boy`s

Got new species of Peresphaerinae. These are Corydidarum magnifica, C. tarsalis, C. pygmaeus, C. sp. Japan and Bantua sp. Namibia. In some cultures there are already adults and as a result, there is every reason to expect offspring Corydidarum magnifica C. tarsalis C. pygmaeus Bantua sp. Namibia Photo by C. sp. Japan I did not publish, since they are outwardly similar to C. pygmaea.

I made this out of boredom. Hope you like them.

Finally gave birth! About (or more) 20 nymphs. Another female also had mating, now we are waiting for her to give birth Everyone is not visible in the photo, since they are smartly hiding:

The P Metallica has always been one of my favorite tarantulas. A couple months ago, I fulfilled my dream of owning one, and yesterday I was able to get one tattooed on me. I've been wanting this tat for years and it turned out pretty good.

Haha I actually have two! One behavior witnessed two years ago and one witnessed today. 1. Dubia hunting live prey - One night in 2019 I put some mealworms into a set of about 20 mixed Dubia nymphs (Mostly large and medium sized nymphs). These nymphs had not encountered mealworms before. I noticed several hunting the mealworms and eating them live similar to behavior seen by orange head roaches. Really bizarre behavior as my Dubia colony never attack their tank mates like mealworms or dermestid beetles. Maybe because the nymphs didn't get enough protein? I was fresh as a roach hobbyist back then and didn't know what I do now. My roaches have balanced diets now but back then I probably didn't feed enough protein so they hunted foreign invertebrates to get it. They never turned to cannibalism thankfully. 2. Male Hisser Ramming Female - This was really odd. When I was feeding one of several hisser colonies I have I noticed a male charging and ramming multiple females like he would a rival male. This was odd as they NEVER from what I've seen charge females. All the males I've seen love their lady Hissers but this one wasn't having it. He rammed two that I saw and finally calmed down after several seconds. He then went to eat the fish pellets I gave them lol. Roaches are so interesting. So many intriguing behaviors!

My Simandoa all started to go out in adults, one pair has been in imago for several weeks already and the female is already plump. I really hope for a brood. The comrade had only two broods, despite the fact that in the first there are much less than thirty babies, and in the second there are only two. This is upsetting. But let's hope for the best In the photo, a pair of adults (male and female):

Hi all, I do research in animal behavior. I just finalized my first publication with cockroaches and wanted to share. See: https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4450/12/4/339 The article is open access, so its free for everyone. To give a simple summary, we studied the tendency of orange head cockroaches (my fav so far) to startle when lights are turned on or turned off. We call it the light-startle response (LSR). I'm really interested in how animals learned, so we used the LSR to study basic habitation learning. That is, the more you present a light-change stimulus, the less they respond to it. We went through four experiments with them investigating how they learn, and how it compares to other species. I think the abstract is pretty clear if you want more information, but I'm also happy to chat about it. The orange heads worked out really well for this project, and another one I am trying to publish soon, so I'll be continuing to do research with them. I got into them for practical research purposes, but I really do enjoy having them.

Here's a care sheet that @Hisserdude wrote up on the species: Invertebrate Dude Caresheets: Pseudoglomeris magnifica (idcaresheets.blogspot.com)

Definitely the "Venom" morph of the Periplaneta americana. The jet-black body and pale white eyes have a great contrast. (Kyle has them if you want some for yourself)

Well, poultry feed....every variety....non-medicated, organic, non-gmo....all have DL Methionine in it. (many have Diatomaceous Earth too...another known pesticide) Poultry feed producers put it in there purposely because it makes for meatier poultry, and the birds grow faster. A read of the patent by the University of Florida clearly shows its effects on insects/larvae with an alkaline gut physiology.....this includes the cockroach. With all due respect, noting your extensive experience, line breeding for the Blaptica dubia cockroach is an urban myth. If there was any genetic diversity within the Blaptica dubia species...Mother Nature would of revealed it herself by now. I've seen with my own eyes what years of feeding nothing but Cheerios can do to the coloration of all the Dubia instars including adults. I purchased two large colonies of approximately 3000 breeding females which were fed nothing but Cheerios....when I started to feed them cat food (this was about 8-9 years ago when cat food was the go to chow ingredient) the very first generation of offspring which eventually molted into adults all became dark and glossy just like the thousands of others I had. I've also seen with my own eyes what feeding nothing but poultry feed does.....I purchased 25,000 females with the vast majority all being the size of a quarter....notice the coin in my pic for reference. Many hundreds had the blisters. The blistered roaches don't live long at all, and are predominately seen on the females. There is something I coined "white wing" disease...I used to barter supplies for other people's Dubia..."used to" being the key phrase. I seen perfectly formed wings that were white/translucent, or the perimeter of the wing if not the edge of the entire body was translucent. I attributed it to molting issues possibly due to a lack of humidity. But the nymphs never grew really, they were flat and sickly looking. The adults seem to perish prematurely also, although that was harder to determine because I wasn't getting into the breeding bins daily or cleaning them out but once every 60 days during a harvest. It got to be such a concern of mine, weeding out sickly looking roaches before selling them, that I began to quarantine all roaches' I acquired in trade. Primarily there was three people I bartered with, and one in particular really had a lot of these white wing issues. I asked her what she was feeding and she proudly proclaimed poultry feed. The other two also had some poultry feed in their chow, one also served a lot of veggies and fruits, but this woman fed nothing but poultry feed right out of the bag. The thing about DLM noted in the patent and elsewhere is that it stays in the genetics for 3 generations..one spraying and it keeps on working for 3 generations. Its really an amazing pesticide that doesn't affect the plant/fruit...it only targets the pest hence the "green" moniker. The roaches I got from this lady continued to have these issues while I bred them...and fed them poultry feed. Understand, I didn't know anything about DL Methionine at the time...I actually started to feed my own in house bred roaches poultry feed. I thought my husbandry was the issue. (even though I had been breeding for 7-8 years before acquiring these roaches) Once I became aware of the problems with poultry feed, through this large Dubia female purchase but also through this need to "manage" an inventory as my business grew...I stopped feeding poultry feed and began experimenting with other products....and the experimental ingredient list is long. In 2019 I stopped feeding poultry feed and today, finally, I don't see any blistering on my bugs...I still see some deformed wings....the key word being "deformed" which is caused by a bad molt. I attribute this to the 3 generation effect caused by DLM which has finally run its course through my colonies. I no longer accept anyone else's bugs in trade. I have actually bought bugs from other known sellers, and have seen blistering and white wing issues as they grew...which I attribute to them using poultry feed in their chow. I know it sounds crazy but I believe I can tell you who is feeding poultry feed and who is not just by looking at their roaches..... Folks tend to look for big red flags...but you would have to understand how DL Methionine works...this "green" pesticide doesn't reveal itself through a massive die off.....it primarily affects reproduction and growth rates. Breeding Blaptica dubia is my livelihood, and over the last 10 years I have done some serious experimenting. I humbly submit...until you have to manage an inventory supplying stores, breeders, reptile shows, and the internet...you really have no clue what is going on in a colony. The ol' look ma...that's a heckuva lot of bugs in there "eye ball" test doesn't reveal much. If you don't believe me take the 5k challenge....take 5,000 baby Dubia nymphs and put them in a 10 gallon sterilite...(we use 7.5)...feed them your Purina poultry feed. (if I recall one of their products is outrageously high in unnecessary protein and calcium too - their bag labeling/design is terrible you can't be sure which product you are getting) Take another 5K into a similarly sized container and feed them fresh fruits and veggies...or a dry chow like ours which contains Oat Groats, Wheat Germ, and Barley...all fit for human consumption. 30 days later count them and share your results.... Please...I sincerely want to know....what benefit do you think your roaches are receiving by feeding them poultry feed ? I'm hard pressed to think that anyone would want their critters to be fed a bug that has in essence been gut loaded with a pesticide..... There is a better way.....a healthier way.

Actually it's ammonia buildup because they don't bind it in uric acid but even if they understood what they were talking about they'd be wrong.

Thanks Martin. I've always wanted to get an electronic version up but I couldn't convert the old files to something usable and didn't have anyone who would be able to host them. I'm not sure I would have the money and certainly not the time to build and pay for a hosting platform. Coachwhip gave the opportunity to get them up just a week or two ago. They are combined and translated from 2000.pub files (2 or 3 files per issue) and each file is 25-65 MB which you still can't send in an e-mail. The reason for multiple files and why the oldest ones have b/w pics in the text is the color ones took too much memory and for a long time anything above 30 MB would crash and could not save as a file.

A few days ago, several adults and about two dozen Elliptorhina coquereliana (Saussure, 1863) nymphs from Moscow will come to me. They were caught in the north of Madagascar - the natural range of this species. Earlier, I carried out identification using material from this culture (external morphology and preparation of the genitals). Based on this data, I can confidently say that the culture is Elliptorhina coquereliana. Photo of a adult male:

Agreed... but yet again it seems the autocorrect has struck me down! And embarrassed me on the internet... I have no idea what it autocorrected to US, but I originally said "for the roach hobby" (at least before my computer decided that it writes better than I do)

Last new colony of the year 2020 has arrived - Diploptera puntacta Nymph Photos Quite excited for this species. I really love when roaches mimic other insects! First things I have noticed: 1 - the musky smell inside the box. Not sure if the smell is from the release of any defensive chemicals from the shaking of the box during transportation or if this is their "natural" smell. 2 - their speed and climbing of walls... bloody hell... i wasn't expecting that for small nymphs. They are quite bold. Normally other nymphs will quickly run under the leaves or substrate to hide after being exposed. Well not these ones! After being re-house, and without warning they all started climbing the walls and trying to escape! All Hell was set loose in less than one minute! 3 - Very difficult to photograph! Exposed to the open, they keep running and running endlessly... the only chances I had was when i would touch their antennae and the oils in my hand would bother their senses... they would stop and lick the antennae for few seconds and then start running again. You can see in one of the photos, the nymphs cleaning itself up. Well, that is all for now! I will keep you posted on this colony development! Cheers

Technically they did. people get around it by saying things like: "I have such-and-such. PM me" As long as there isn't a price in the post or the words selling or buying, they can get away with it.

Just to inform that Invertebrate Dude has helped tremendously to get an ID on these roaches. Thank you! Based on the location, male to female size similarities, female ventral abdomen with short yellow hairs, also matching the description from the Perisphaerinae Revision Paper, he pointed out that he thought it is Perisphaerus punctatus. Now onto to get these established in the hobby. My colony is doing very well, and now I need to think about scaling up the enclosure. I like this setup a lot, its very practical and functions very well but it wont withstand 40/50 adults. I want to order the same exact design, but 3 or 4 times the size. Just last piece of information. Since these roaches are local, I have noticed that, comparatively to other species, the low temperature drop to 12C had little effect on their activity levels. At night, they were the most active roaches. Cheers!

Hello everyone, FlamingSwampert here! I just wanted to introduce myself. You may/may not know me from the Arachnoboards forum, or from many other places. I am getting into the roach hobby, so I decided to join this forum! I plan on getting many more species once it becomes warmer, but currently I only have Dubia Roaches. Other than roaches, I have a Painted Agama named Rocky, and a plethora of isopods, beetles, millipedes, and fish. I have also kept stag beetles and mantises, but all of my individuals sadly died. I love all roaches (and animals), but my favorite species are the hissers and Blaberus sp. I hope I can contribute to this forum as much as possible! Happy roaching, everyone!

Now in the US hobby! 😁 Unfortunately these individuals were not mine to keep, but I should be getting some next year when their new owners breed them! In any case, I was able to snag a few pictures of some nymphs while they were briefly in my possession, enjoy! Closely related to Lanxoblatta, and similar to them in care.

Bantua sp. Namibia Corydidarum magnifica (Shelford, 1907) Corydidarum pygmaea (Karny, 1915) Corydidarum tarsalis (Walker, 1868) Hyposphaeria sp. South Africa Pseudoglomeris glomeris (Saussure, 1863) Pseudoglomeris terranea (Walker, 1871) and several more indeterminate Perisphaerus species from Southeast Asia. This is what different keepers have.

They eat

Therea are very interesting cockroaches, however, like all Corydiinae. T. bernhardti, T. olegranjeani live with me and relatively recently, I acquired T. regularis. So far, these are ten teenage nymphs. A very beautiful view, of course, but I like T. olegranjeani the most of them

I've read that fresh peanut butter will glow under a black light too! But I've yet to test it out. It seems that at least one Cubaris species will glow too: (Cubaris sp. ‘Blonde Rubber Ducky’ from dartknightexotics reddit page)

So my partner and I were cleaning their tank for their Madagascar hissing cockroaches and we came across this girl. Put her aside since she looks different from any of the others and waited a night to see if it was just because of molting. But nope, she's retained this light caramel colour. My partner dubbed her "Candy Apple" and we've decided to select our prettiest male and try to breed to see if there is any chance it's genetic. Thought I'd share here!

I meant to do this a long time ago and totally forgot. I got started in late 2018 raising Dubia roaches for my son's lizard. I'd had reptiles, chelonians and such in the past but never inverts. The roaches turned out to be more interesting than reptiles to me, and my son started collecting bugs and getting interested in entomology. The combination of a move to a larger house with dedicated office/invert space and time at home due to the pandemic really accelerated my acquisition of new species. Tracking them down is really fun, but I enjoy raising them as well. It's quite relaxing to take care of them and see their progress. It's also a great way to connect with my son (6) and two daughters (3 and 2). This community has been a great resource for me and I try to pay it forward whenever I can.

I don't think I've shared this specimen here before.

Well I've bred Myrmecophilus without keeping them with ants, so I'm hoping I can do the same with the Myrmecoblatta, we'll see. I'm throwing everything I can at them diet wise.

An adult male

The sky

Hello everyone, Just wanted to check in. Its been awhile since I've been on here. Lots of changes happened. I moved to new state, new career, etc. I'm slowly starting to get my life around once again. Hopefully I can start breeding roaches once more. I miss having my roach colonies that I had to rehome due to relocating. Hope all is well with everyone. Have a good Day.