Gromphadorhini

Two females with ootheca. Finally, I got the first results! The male did a good job!

That's great In fact, yes, the phonetics of our languages is completely different, except for simple vowels and consonants. For example, it is very difficult for us to pronounce the article "the" It is easier for us to read it as "te" or in extreme cases as "ze". We have very close phonetics with Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. And of course it is easier to read and understand than to speak in a foreign language, this is certainly And the Ukrainian language is generally very difficult. If I hear it on TV or on YouTube, I don’t understand anything at all what the Ukrainians are saying

Oh, yes! Google Translate is cool! )))

Yes, they are very beautiful, males look like ghosts)))) It's a pity that we won't be able to communicate in the messenger, I don't know English, but I speak Spanish very badly. But we have already found a common language and even made a little friendship We also have a common acquaintance, my friend - Philip Byzov Don't you want to learn Russian?

In early May, I received material from Uzbekistan, collected in three locations: a clay desert near the city of Termez (extreme south), from the surrounding sandy massifs of the year of Bukhara and from the sandy desert of the Nurata nature reserve. Naturally, all the material came unnamed. I, the person involved in this group, have previously identified the material in my laboratory. As a result: an adult female from the vicinity of the city of Termez turned out to be Polyphaga saussurei; three females from the sands of Bukhara - Polyphaga indica vitripennis (why exactly ssp. vitripennis - because the nominative subspecies does not occur on the territory of the former USSR); two subadult females and a subadult male from the Nurata Nature Reserve are also P. indica vitripennis. The adult females from the first two locations were unambiguously fertilized in nature and began to lay ootheca on the way. Females from the Nurata Nature Reserve, and later the male, molted into adults. And now, just yesterday, I discovered that both of them immediately begin to form ooteca. We will conduct laboratory observations of this material. I think that with such a high productivity, there is a chance to introduce this material into laboratory culture. Вот самец P. indica vitripennis:

I have never seen E. funebris either

In my collection there is a culture that we designated as Ergaula sp. Kinabatangan, Borneo, as the material was collected by one of our Russian keepers along the Kinabatangan River, in the east of Kalimantan Island (Borneo), several years ago. These cockroaches differ from the species already present in culture - E. capucina (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893) and E. pilosa (Walker, 1868). These are smaller cockroaches, the males of which have an almost solid black (rarely with a small light spot in the middle) color, capable of rapid active flight. Females have a more prominent pronotum and sculpted surface of the first pair of wings. This material is very similar to the photographs (not typical) of the samples presented on the E. pilosa page of the site [http://cockroach.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1177988]. In turn, these samples are not at all similar to what we usually call in culture as E. pilosa. There are two opinions: either the site has not correctly identified the material, or what we have called E. pilosa is not. What are your opinions? Here's my sample:

The conditions of our laboratory: the temperature is in the range of 25—30 (they do not suffer from fluctuations at all, if they are smooth). Humidity not less than 80%, absolute ventilation, that is, through holes in a plastic container (on opposite walls) with a diameter of 15 cm, tightened with a thin steel wire mesh. Substrate 1—2 cm (coconut peat), food — apples and food for cats and/or dogs, gammarus. Cannibalist. Ooteca incubate under the same conditions, but in separate containers, the maximum incubation period is more than a year, but they may come out earlier. Nymphs grow for a long time, more than a year.

80%

They are generally not difficult. Humidity is high, as for all cockroaches of the tropical rainforest (for example, Blaberus), the temperature is 25-30 C °. They eat everything, rather gluttonous. Ooteca lie for a very long time, it is better to incubate them separately, at high humidity and it is advisable to drop them with a substrate. Our first ooteca lasted for over a year.

This is not roach. This is beatle

Even so! Didn't know there were two of them. Well, if this is true, then yes, the one in which the females reach the size of Polyphaga saussurei is clearly not P. obscura, since they really should be smaller. The only question is, how were these females (smaller in size) identified as P. obscura? Unfortunately, there is no description of P. obscura ootheca; all Polyphaga species are very well distinguishable by them (except for P. aegyptiaca, whose ooteca is identical to P. saussurei). In general, I would very much like to have a P. obscura culture with males. Now I have full-fledged (with males) populations of P. saussurei, P. aegyptiaca and three females and one male P. indica vitripennis, two females from location No. 1 deposited 9 oothecs (then one of the females died), two females. and the male from location No. 2 still does not have eggs, as all three individuals have just become adults (there is some doubt about the maturity of the females). My friend Philip Byzov and I will soon order a bisexual P. plancyi, so only P. obscura is missing. Corydiinae is generally my passion Here are all the species that I currently have in culture: Ergaula capucina, Ergaula pilosa, Ergaula sp. Kinabatangan, Borneo, Eucorydia forceps, Eucorydia yasumatsui, Polyphaga aegyptiaca, Polyphaga cf. indica vitripennis Bukhara, Uzbekistan, Polyphaga cf. indica vitripennis Nuratau Biosphere Reserve, Uzbekistan, Polyphaga saussurei Schardara, Kazakhstan, Polyphaga cf. saussurei Termez, Uzbekistan, Therea bernhardti, Therea olegrandjeani, Therea regularis, Therea cf. nuptialis Pachmarhi, India. Eupolyphaga sinensis is unfortunately lost, but it is not that difficult to get them. In addition, there is an agreement to exchange Eucorydia aenea. There are plans to send a person on an expedition to the Betpak-Dala desert, which is in southern Kazakhstan, where (judging by the typical location) — Hemelytroblatta roseni (Brancsik, 1898) is found there, these are small cockroaches, previously attributed to the genus Arenivaga. Hopefully there will be results And of course there are big plans to trade with you for Arenivaga spp.

I would like to talk about the Polyphaga obscura culture. As far as I know, there is a culture called P. obscura and it is represented only by parthenogenetic females. As you know, females of at least three Polyphaga species are indistinguishable, and identification is possible only by males. If there are no males in the culture, can we say that it is P. obscura in the culture? How to distinguish between parthenogenetic cultures of P. obscura and P. saussurei? Or maybe there are P. obscura cultures with males?

In my laboratory it is 25-27 ° C during the day, and at night it drops to 22 ° C. In general, of course, the most favorable daytime temperature for all crops in general is from 30-35 C °, but I do not use heating devices due to energy savings. A friend was in the south-west of Madagascar and said that the temperature there is monstrous, the heat is unbearable, and the humidity in the area of these very thorny woodlands is practically zero, that is, it is actually a very dry desert. Where cockroaches sit, it is also dry, but at least cooler by 2-5 C °. There is no available water or food containing moisture, except for the leaves and stems of succulents.