Martin Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 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 3 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthroverts Posted October 2, 2020 Share Posted October 2, 2020 Wow, this is fantastic news for the hobby! The light coloration on the underside of the abdomen is rather interesting. Please update us if you are able to get an ID, though I wonder if it is an undescribed species. Have you measured them at all? How large do they get? Thanks for sharing, Arthroverts Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 Very nice, pretty little species, looks rather similar to P.pygmaeus, (though likely not that species). Hope you're able to keep breeding them and establish them in the hobby, would love to see them in the US hobby one day! 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 11 hours ago, Arthroverts said: Wow, this is fantastic news for the hobby! The light coloration on the underside of the abdomen is rather interesting. Please update us if you are able to get an ID, though I wonder if it is an undescribed species. Have you measured them at all? How large do they get? Thanks for sharing, Arthroverts Not yet been able to do so. They are really flighty... now that i only have females, I will just wait for that second female to have nymphs, and I will do that for you, and try to take some macro photos as well. regards Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Hisserdude said: Very nice, pretty little species, looks rather similar to P.pygmaeus, (though likely not that species). Hope you're able to keep breeding them and establish them in the hobby, would love to see them in the US hobby one day! 😁 I am still waiting for news This year I was supposed to do with the Entomologist the Macau Biodiversity Exhibition (thank you covid for delaying this), where I would display 2 of my ant colonies, but now the good news is I will definitely be able to showcase these as well, it would be awesome if they were a new species for Macau. By the way, i forgot to say, I found these roaches to roam on trees more often than on the ground. In one instance, one large female was eating tree sap. I want to try to collect some of that sap, to see if I can replicate the feeding behavior. Regarding, having this or other species in the US hobby, I am not sure how I would be able to do that legally, but I am more than willing to help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrGhostMantis Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 There are permits we could get to import them from you. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 3, 2020 Author Share Posted October 3, 2020 Ok. I will research more for the local government as well. I guess I would need an export permit, and a proper shipping company. I think this would make sense, once we can get confirmation on the exact species these are. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 3 hours ago, MrGhostMantis said: There are permits we could get to import them from you. Only if you worked at a university or museum, there are no permits for legally importing roaches for pet purposes as far as I'm aware, and I've talked with reptile and arachnid importers on the subject. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 3 hours ago, Martin said: By the way, i forgot to say, I found these roaches to roam on trees more often than on the ground. In one instance, one large female was eating tree sap That is normal for this genus I'd say, they are good climbers and seem to enjoy sweet foods. In my experience, P.pygmaeus really likes artificial pollen too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arthroverts Posted October 3, 2020 Share Posted October 3, 2020 10 hours ago, Hisserdude said: Only if you worked at a university or museum, there are no permits for legally importing roaches for pet purposes as far as I'm aware, and I've talked with reptile and arachnid importers on the subject. Well, not for "pet" purposes, but for "education" it certainly is possible ;). Thanks, Arthroverts 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 11, 2020 Author Share Posted October 11, 2020 Today I re-housed my Perisphaerus colony into the same type of enclosure but with a different soil mixture (before was just cocofiber, this time i added up clay and some sand and peat, to try to retain more humidity) and a nice cork background. I like how the background has some moss filaments and the from cockbark pieces have likens on them. The younglings like to hide themselves (nowadays) inside the bark crevices. Just adorable then they take a peak to smell something 😋🥰 like these polen pellets. Ps: they also love baby turtle food pellets What do you think of the setup? Cheers Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted October 12, 2020 Author Share Posted October 12, 2020 Sorry for the constant updates 😅 but I like to post as things happen. 15th September 2020 was the day the second female extruded her ootheca. And today 12th October 2020, 27 days later, she gave birth to beautiful younglings! Second batch of nymphs that this colony produced. 🥳 I suspect I have a pre-adult male, which would be great, but if not, and unless females can lay multiple times with one pairing, this colony may only increase in size, after all these babies grow up 🤗 Lets wait and see 🥰 Fingers crossed for the future! PS: seems the new enclosure was accepted 😅 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted November 13, 2020 Author Share Posted November 13, 2020 Hi guys! A month has passed since my last post! I believe these are just fresh out of the oven. 3rd Colony Generation I am so happy with their continued growth ! Cannot wait to have an id on this species and share them with the world! Cheers guys! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Axolotl Posted November 14, 2020 Share Posted November 14, 2020 Congrats! I've been following along with your journey. So happy that you're having success with these. I love your set ups. I've been doing something very similar for my P. magnifica and it seems to work quite well. I think the verticality is key. Please keep updating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted November 16, 2020 Share Posted November 16, 2020 On 11/13/2020 at 7:33 AM, Martin said: Hi guys! A month has passed since my last post! I believe these are just fresh out of the oven. 3rd Colony Generation I am so happy with their continued growth ! Cannot wait to have an id on this species and share them with the world! Cheers guys! Very nice, glad they're breeding so well for you! 😁 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted November 16, 2020 Author Share Posted November 16, 2020 On 11/14/2020 at 7:53 PM, Axolotl said: Congrats! I've been following along with your journey. So happy that you're having success with these. I love your set ups. I've been doing something very similar for my P. magnifica and it seems to work quite well. I think the verticality is key. Please keep updating. Thank you! I will ! And i need to figure out, where I will transfer them to next year. If all these grow into adults, this enclosure won't suffice. Also, I need to try this as well with another P.magnifica colony 17 minutes ago, Hisserdude said: Very nice, glad they're breeding so well for you! 😁 Thank you! Now I need to poke my entomologist friend to dedicate some time to id these girls! regards 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted November 21, 2020 Share Posted November 21, 2020 On 11/16/2020 at 2:03 AM, Martin said: And i need to figure out, where I will transfer them to next year. You could always transfer them to me LOL! 😂 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted November 21, 2020 Author Share Posted November 21, 2020 7 hours ago, Hisserdude said: You could always transfer them to me LOL! 😂 I will, its a deal ! 😉 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted January 18, 2021 Author Share Posted January 18, 2021 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! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hisserdude Posted January 18, 2021 Share Posted January 18, 2021 So nice to have another Perisphaerus in culture, I hope yours continue to do well for you! 😄 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlamingSwampert Posted January 19, 2021 Share Posted January 19, 2021 Wow, super cool! Hope you can get them established and distributed! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin Posted January 19, 2021 Author Share Posted January 19, 2021 On 1/18/2021 at 11:14 AM, Hisserdude said: So nice to have another Perisphaerus in culture, I hope yours continue to do well for you! 😄 Thank you!! 10 hours ago, FlamingSwampert said: Wow, super cool! Hope you can get them established and distributed! I definitely will ! The world needs more Perisphaerinae! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FlamingSwampert Posted January 21, 2021 Share Posted January 21, 2021 On 1/19/2021 at 8:36 AM, Martin said: The world needs more Perisphaerinae! Agreed! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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