Perisphaerus punctatus: New Roly Poly Roaches!!!

Martinho Shipment Pt. 1/3

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Thanks to the generosity of my good friend Martinho, I've just received a wonderful package of roaches, none of which have previously been cultured in the US. 😁 I hope to establish all these species in the hobby here over the next year or so, fingers crossed!

Let's start off with a species that I actually helped Martinho identify, Perisphaerus punctatus. This species is very similar to pygmaeus at first glance, but some features that can be used to differentiate this species from pygmaeus include the females of punctatus having much wider body morphology than pygmaeus, a glossier exoskeleton and a larger, more convex pronotum. Additionally, while punctatus females are a bit bigger than those of pygmaeus, the males of punctatus are TWICE the size of pygmaeus males, and the size disparity between the males and females of P.punctatus is much less than that of P.pygmaeus. You can read more about this species here on Martinho's blog. 😁

I have my group of 15 or so mixed individuals in a very well ventilated enclosure, with vertical bark hides and a substrate of coconut fiber. I'll be keeping them humid, and at 75-85F°. I'll offer dog food, fruits and artificial pollen for food. I basically have them set up exactly like my P.pygmaeus.

Here are some pictures of this awesome new addition to US Blatticulture:

Adult female Perisphaerus punctatus

Adult male Perisphaerus punctatus

Adult pair of Perisphaerus punctatus

Adult female Perisphaerus pygmaeus

Adult male Perisphaerus pygmaeus

P.punctatus (L) VS P.pygmaeus (R), adult females

P.punctatus (Top) VS P.pygmaeus (Bottom), adult females

P.punctatus (Bottom) VS P.pygmaeus (Top), adult females

P.punctatus (R) VS P.pygmaeus (L), adult males

Very cute, quite similar to pygmaeus but with some noticeable differences in morphology, and in behavior they are also different, with P.punctatus being far more active, skittish and arboreal in nature than P.pygmaeus. It's nice to finally have more than one species of Perisphaerus in the US hobby, hopefully we can actually keep these established here as opposed to other species in this genus that have come and gone from the hobby in the past. 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, but stay tuned, got lots more new additions where these came from! 😉 Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time!