Enough with the doom and gloom updates, here's a more positive one for y'all! 😃 I've got an adult pair of Parcoblatta americana, yay! 😁 Ooths should follow soon, and babies not too long after that, so it should be smooth sailing from here.
Only thing that sucks is that two of the larger nymphs are subadult males, and the smaller ones females, so I've had to move the male nymphs to a colder enclosure so they won't mature and die off before the rest of the females do, since I'd like to maximize the amount of brood produced this generation as much as possible. 😅
Here are some pictures of the adult pair:
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| Adult female |
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| Adult male |
I'll keep you all posted on how these do, I'm pretty optimistic about their future ATM. 🙂
More of my Gromphadorhina sp. "Unidentified" have matured recently, including the last of the male nymphs, so here are some pictures of all/both the new adult males:
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| Male #5 |
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| Male #6 |
Patterning seems pretty consistent, as does the pronotum structure, which is good. So far all the adult females just look like regular portentosa with slightly paler abdominal margins, which is evidently the normal look for the stock in it's current state... Still not sure about the purity of this stock, but so far they seem reasonably consistent at least.
Now, backtracking a little bit back to the Parcoblatta americana... Remember that weird looking nymph collected? The only one found within rotten wood at the very start of the trail, by the parking lot adjacent to the Boise Botanical gardens? Well, it molted recently, and I can now definitely tell it's a Blattid, not an Ectobiid, as it's last tergite is cleft. 😅
Here are some pictures of it:
So, what exactly is it? My guess is Blatta orientalis, on account of the dark coloration, and the fact that I've never seen Periplaneta here and think it probably gets too cold for those to breed here, whereas Blatta orientalis can handle much colder temps. Interestingly, I don't think there are Bugguide or even INaturalist sightings of B.orientalis in Idaho, so at the very least I might be able to add a sighting for this species for the state of ID on those sites, guess I'll have to wait and see once this nymph matures!
Lastly, my Hemithyrsocera palliata colony is really booming, and I though I'd share some pictures of a bunch of them feeding on an apple slice. 😄
I do have plenty of these available BTW, if anyone is interested, feel free to check out my For Sale page.
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
Man, if it turned out there were Hemithyrsocera - [i]any[/i] Hemithyrsocera - available in the UK, or even Europe in general, I'd snap them up. Their colours grab me more than a lot of the other 'pretty' roach species, like the Gynas or Thereas. Especially that yellow collar around the pronotum. Spectacular.
ReplyDeleteI saw your most recent sale ad on the Allpet Roaches forum. I'm cursing the Atlantic for being in the way!
On the subject of pretty roaches, congrats on the [i]Parcoblatta americana[/i]. They might seem a bit more 'generic' as roaches, so to speak, but IMO that orange glow off the adult males elevates them a lot.
Hemithyrsocera came into the US hobby FROM Europe LOL, they are way more common there than here in the US, where we don't even have vittata established yet, and palliata are still uncommon. So you should actually be able to find them easily if you join some roach groups on Facebook and ask around! :) I agree though, they are so delicately beautiful in a way that a lot of other roaches aren't, one of my favorite Ectobiid genera for sure!
DeleteThanks, I find Parcoblatta have a subtle beauty about them, though many find them too "roachy" looking to be of much interest.