My Dubia color experiment: the results!

[Keith]

A year in the making and finally my effort has paid off! My goal was to breed a light male and female dubia together, to see if the offspring inherit the color gentically, or if diet/environment cause the odd coloring.

All my dubia are siblings, raised in the same tank, with the same diet. I gave them the best care possible to rule out neglect causing odd coloring or poor diet.

Based on my results thus far, I have gotten light adults, so coloring is part genetic! I also discovered that based of this breeding i have gotten extra large adults when last year breeding normal adults the result was mostly normal dubia.

I also noticed many of the males has wrinkly looking wings even though they shed fine, and the wings have a grayish film over them which also makes the wings softer than normal. This occured in at least half of the males, though it has no ill effect on the roach luckily.

So lets start with the Parents, these are what started it all.

[Keith]

Here is the dubia I am most proud of. A female exhibiting a very high yellow coloration! You can see her next to her normal colored Sister on the left. However, though some sisters and brothers are normal looking, they still carry the genes to produce light colored offspring!

A lucky member here is getting all my females after they mature and I hope the light colored dubias continues on!

[Keith]

Here is a female with pure red wing pads, no black line like normal!

[Keith]

Here is a blonde male next to a normal male.

[Keith]

Here are a few males next to eachother for comparison in variation.

[Keith]

Here is a dwarf dubia next to a giant male

[Keith]

Here is a giant male, giant female nymph, and normal female. Big size difference! Stay tuned for more photos as more mature!

[Ralph]

So wait, this is the F1 generation? What's the ratio like between light and dark, and large and small?

[Keith]

So wait, this is the F1 generation? What's the ratio like between light and dark, and large and small?

First gen would be the parents, this is their children. Id say 75% dark 25% light but can't fully say as many more nymphs need to mature. but sone of the dark exhibit light traits (like the dark female with red wing pads). Overall most are average or large only found 2 dwarf.

[Twitch8604]

Very cool, maybe one day roach morphs like leos and ball pythons

[Keith]

Very cool, maybe one day roach morphs like leos and ball pythons

Hissers come in few morphs, so it has already happened. Now to get others in morphs, like dubia and craniifer too.

[Nicolas Rousseaux]

Very cool, maybe one day roach morphs like leos and ball pythons

hope that will never happen... mixing localities, subspecies, breeding for money and not for passion, this shit is definitely not my job... Selection is fun, but I don't want to see roaches as non-pure, degenerated and commercial than those reptiles...

[Zephyr]

I'm still not convinced that this is genetic. If you bred two light-colored individuals together and if they are assumed to be homozygous for the trait then the offspring should all be the same with respect to that trait. Either there's a more complex genetic mechanism here (multi-loci expression or incomplete dominance) or the trait isn't genetic.

[Keith]

I'm still not convinced that this is genetic. If you bred two light-colored individuals together and if they are assumed to be homozygous for the trait then the offspring should all be the same with respect to that trait. Either there's a more complex genetic mechanism here (multi-loci exp<b></b>ression or incomplete dominance) or the trait isn't genetic.

All I can say is there all from the same parents, and raised in the same tank and same diet. What else would cause abnormal coloring in some and normal in others if there genetically related and raised the same? Something genetic is going on here. Mabye its recessive and only some offspring inherit it?

[Briene]

: ) awesome!

[pierre72]

Here is the dubia I am most proud of. A female exhibiting a very high yellow coloration! You can see her next to her normal colored Sister on the left. However, though some sisters and brothers are normal looking, they still carry the genes to produce light colored offspring!

A lucky member here is getting all my females after they mature and I hope the light colored dubias continues on!

What happened to this photo?

[pierre72]

Here is a blonde male next to a normal male.

I see what you mean by the size difference.

[JohnFrost]

A few years ago I noticed that a few of my Dubia were lighter. Like you I started a breeding program to see if I could isolate the yellow coloration with some success. I have found that there is a difference between a non expression of Black (which turns the black areas reddish brown) and a lack of black in the area (which is normally replaced with either Yellow or Clear). I'm interested to see how your F3 series turns out.

[Keith]

A few years ago I noticed that a few of my Dubia were lighter. Like you I started a breeding program to see if I could isolate the yellow coloration with some success. I have found that there is a difference between a non exp<b></b>ression of Black (which turns the black areas reddish brown) and a lack of black in the area (which is normally replaced with either Yellow or Clear). I'm interested to see how your F3 series turns out.

I didnt continue after first gen light adults. I had no more room so I gave them to someone who had room for a light colony. I am impressed at your breeding project you are doing great you should be proud!

[JohnFrost]

I'm Sorry to hear that, but I know what you mean. I had several strange color patterns that showed up during my breeding, but never had the space to give them a real chance to see where they would lead.

[tecrecycling]

Very interesting experiment. I noticed a few of my E javanica's that have significantly lighter coloring I plan on doing the same experiment. One of my nymphs when born was extremely pale compared to the rest of the litter, the nymph is on its 3rd or 4th molt and is still very light. Im very curious to see what it looks like as an adult.

[Keith]

I'm Sorry to hear that, but I know what you mean. I had several strange color patterns that showed up during my breeding, but never had the space to give them a real chance to see where they would lead.

I had one male like this pretty strange color and pattern. Give oranges and lots of protein like cat food you'll see the colors improve over a few days.