Hissing Cockroach reproduction

[Draketeeth]

Joined a facebook group not too long ago which is dedicated to hissing cockroaches. They seem like a fun group of pet hobbiest who enjoy setting up tanks and admiring their babies, but I see the same comment pop up again and again concerning members with females who suddenly end up with offspring: they don't need a male to reproduce.

To my understanding, hissers (specifically G. portentosa) are not a species who have parthenogenetic reproduction.

Has there ever been evidence of them suddenly producing by themselves, or are people not realizing they've been sent pregnant females/had a female in with a male too long before separating them?

 

[PidderPeets]

Joined a facebook group not too long ago which is dedicated to hissing cockroaches. They seem like a fun group of pet hobbiest who enjoy setting up tanks and admiring their babies, but I see the same comment pop up again and again concerning members with females who suddenly end up with offspring: they don't need a male to reproduce.

To my understanding, hissers (specifically G. portentosa) are not a species who have parthenogenetic reproduction.

Has there ever been evidence of them suddenly producing by themselves, or are people not realizing they've been sent pregnant females/had a female in with a male too long before separating them?

I can't say whether they reproduce parthenogenically or not, but I have a hard time believing they do. My understanding is that parthenogenesis only results in female offspring, as they're essentially clones of the mother. So if the offspring being produced are mixed sexes, that should only be possible with a male/female pairing. I could be wrong though

In September, I got two females that I suspected were gravid when I got them. One gave birth less than 24 hours after getting them. The other just aborted her egg case a few weeks ago. She didn't have any contact with a male during that time, but she came from a decent sized breeding colony. Being the large female she is, and coming from the colony set up she was in, I'd have a hard time believing that's not where she got gravid.

So she went 3 to 4 months without any male contact before dropping the case, so I could see someone mistaking that as them not needing a male to reproduce.

 

[arachnoherp]

Well something many forget is thattgey have a pretty long gestation period.

 

[pannaking22]

There are no records of parthenogenesis in Gromphadorhina. They can hold eggs and sperm for a really long time until conditions are good enough to give birth. Those people just got a gravid female that took forever to give birth.

 

[Hisserdude]

Adult females can retain sperm for a long time, so if anyone buys an adult female that was kept in an enclosure with at least one male, she's basically guaranteed to be gravid, or will be soon. They can not reproduce via parthenogenesis, people are just buying mated adult females.

 

[z32upgrader]

In early November I acquired a nice little group of adult hissers and they've yet to produce any babies. They were living in a large group of probably 20 individuals in very poor conditions; dead bodies and rotting lettuce littering the floor, and no water. There were no babies to be seen dead or alive in that tank. I took five females and four males. One male died of old age so far. How much longer, now that they're no longer living in squalor, until the females give birth? I hear the males doing their breeding hiss all the time and the females are very fat and round.

 

[Draketeeth]

In early November I acquired a nice little group of adult hissers and they've yet to produce any babies. . . . I took five females and four males. One male died of old age so far. How much longer, now that they're no longer living in squalor, until the females give birth? I hear the males doing their breeding hiss all the time and the females are very fat and round.

I think gestation for them is somewhere around 70 days, so if you're keeping them warm enough to reproduce, you should hopefully be getting babies soon. Given that they were living in poor conditions, if you gave them a month of good food and recovery time to build up their internal stores again, maybe first part of February? But if they're fat and happy and being kept warm, maybe sooner!

Those poor roaches Sounds like they came outta somewhere pretty gross.

 

[emmaroaches]

Have any of you heard of a roach giving birth one at a time? My roach seems to be doing that. I've seen three different white nymphs, alive and well, at different times. I'm positive that these are all different babies because I've seen two of them grouped up and change color, but then the other one that I just found is still white. I'm just really confused because I can't find an answer anywhere.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Have any of you heard of a roach giving birth one at a time? My roach seems to be doing that. I've seen three different white nymphs, alive and well, at different times. I'm positive that these are all different babies because I've seen two of them grouped up and change color, but then the other one that I just found is still white. I'm just really confused because I can't find an answer anywhere.

This thread is an old one on parthenogenetic reproduction. You might as well make to your own thread .. I think hissers give birth same as dubia Which on my thread I got pics of some of them shortly after they were born. https://arachnoboards.com/threads/picky-dubias-won’t-eat.359831/post-3390972