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!

Macropanesthia Molts, Panchlora Babies & More!

Man has there been a lot going on in the collection lately, mostly expansion TBH, which I'll get to in subsequent posts, but for now here are some more overdue updates on some of my roach species. 😄 

Both my Macropanesthia molted this month, and dang are they getting chonky! 😁 Fingers crossed the continue to do well for me, so far they seem super hardy!

Here are some pics of the larger female:

Adorable little things, can't wait until they become massive beasts! 😄

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And now for a US hobby first... I've gotten babies from my Panchlora sp. "Guadeloupe"!!! 😁😁😁 I'm so glad they've bred, hopefully there will be many more babies where these came from, so I can help to establish them in the US hobby as quickly as possible! 😊

Some pictures of the little cuties:

Very cute, typical Panchlora nymph build on these little ones, as opposed to the more gangly appearance of say Panchlora sp. "White".

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Lastly, I'm very happy to announce one of my Gyna bisannulata females has matured, woot woot! 😃 Another one or two of my females appear to be subadults as well, they are all rather small compared to G.capcuina, and apparently my females are smaller than average... Perhaps because of the small container they're in and thin layer of substrate I had them on... Oh well, small's better than nothing, at least they're maturing in time to mate with some of the many males that have matured. 😅

Case in point, I went to get pictures of said female, and she was already hooking up with a male! So no solo female pictures ATM, just some hot and steamy roach lovemaking photos... 😜

Hopefully I get some good broods from these beauties, I am keeping them quite warm compared to how I kept my capucina, thanks to my new heat cable... So that's good at least. Honestly might want to reacquire capucina before the year's over as well and give them another shot, we'll see.

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, but stay tuned, I've just got in a bunch of new species for my collection, which I'm going to be sharing over the next couple of weeks! 😁 Thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see y'all in the next post! 😉