White species of cockroach?

[Tleilaxu]

Well, you can always help me fund my next trip to Ecuador...

I do believe the blue roach I posted takes collection priority.

I will however accept Megaloblatta blaberoides as an alternative.

 

[wizentrop]

@Tleilaxu funny you mentioned Megaloblatta blaberoides. I tried working with this species last year. Reared a few pairs of adults, got several nice and chunky oothecae. Then I waited. I am still waiting. The oothecae are the sensitive stage for this species, they must require very specific conditions in order to hatch. They ended up not hatching, and even though one of them still looks good, I suspect they just went bad. I might try to work again with Megaloblatta, but right now it is not worth my time.

 

[Hisserdude]

@Tleilaxu funny you mentioned Megaloblatta blaberoides. I tried working with this species last year. Reared a few pairs of adults, got several nice and chunky oothecae. Then I waited. I am still waiting. The oothecae are the sensitive stage for this species, they must require very specific conditions in order to hatch. They ended up not hatching, and even though one of them still looks good, I suspect they just went bad. I might try to work again with Megaloblatta, but right now it is not worth my time.

You know, a couple people have been having success with a couple smaller Ectobiid species here in the states, no one had ever gotten their oothecae to hatch before, however apparently letting the ooths be in a barely humid environment for a couple months, followed by about a month of heavy misting and high humidity levels, worked to get them to hatch. Perhaps Megaloblatta oothecae need such conditions to hatch? Keep in mind the species I am talking about aren't really closely related to Megaloblatta at all, I'm just throwing an idea out here.

 

[Hisserdude]

Also, getting a little off topic here, (sorry OP), but since we are basically talking about cool roaches from Ecuador now, Melyroidea magnifica is the species at the top of my wishlist from that area, they are AMAZING!! The adults are beautiful, and just look at this cluster of nymphs.

 

[Tleilaxu]

@Tleilaxu funny you mentioned Megaloblatta blaberoides. I tried working with this species last year. Reared a few pairs of adults, got several nice and chunky oothecae. Then I waited. I am still waiting. The oothecae are the sensitive stage for this species, they must require very specific conditions in order to hatch. They ended up not hatching, and even though one of them still looks good, I suspect they just went bad. I might try to work again with Megaloblatta, but right now it is not worth my time.

Aww, I think since they seem to be found near water that maybe they need higher humidity, or in a twist of fate lower. Well hopefully you try again, such a large roach is a must have.

Ah well go forth, drop everything your doing and fetch me that blue roach I posted, that particular one was in Guyana. Onwards for the hobby!

 

[wizentrop]

@Tleilaxu The blue roach is found in Ecuador too, see here (photographed in Yasuni):
https://twitter.com/Takehiko_Sato/status/842698698790326272

 

[Hisserdude]

@Tleilaxu The blue roach is found in Ecuador too, see here (photographed in Yasuni):
https://twitter.com/Takehiko_Sato/status/842698698790326272

Wow, didn't know there was another sighting of that species, someone's gotta collect some already, if not to culture then at least to send to a taxonomist to get described/identified!

 

[Tleilaxu]

@Tleilaxu The blue roach is found in Ecuador too, see here (photographed in Yasuni):
https://twitter.com/Takehiko_Sato/status/842698698790326272

Fair enough, do try and make a concerted effort to gather any if they show themselves to you when you go.

I'd actually buy some once they get established. But until that time I will wait for the professionals, and for when I move out of Florida, since importing any roach species is illegal here, since naturalization is not an impossibility here.

@Hisserdude I think culture takes priority.

 

[Hisserdude]

Fair enough, do try and make a concerted effort to gather any if they show themselves to you when you go.

I'd actually buy some once they get established. But until that time I will wait for the professionals, and for when I move out of Florida, since importing any roach species is illegal here, since naturalization is not an impossibility here.

@Hisserdude I think culture takes priority.

In Florida, naturalization is an inevitability!

Yeah, it really does take priority, especially since you can then send multiple specimens out to taxonomists after they are established in culture, so it kills two birds with one stone.

 

[wizentrop]

Actually, research ALWAYS takes priority. ALWAYS. Without it you would not be able to maintain a culture. What if this roach specializes in feeding only on moss growing on leaves in the rainforest? Just an example. As long as we do not know what it is, anything is possible. I will say that culturing can be a part of scientific research, but not necessary.

By the way, I did not make that up. There are roaches that are moss/algae specialists. Which is why you do not find them in culture.

 

[Hisserdude]

Actually, research ALWAYS takes priority. ALWAYS. Without it you would not be able to maintain a culture. What if this roach specializes in feeding only on moss growing on leaves in the rainforest? Just an example. As long as we do not know what it is, anything is possible. I will say that culturing can be a part of scientific research, but not necessary.

By the way, I did not make that up. There are roaches that are moss/algae specialists. Which is why you do not find them in culture.

Yeah, but often a good way to learn more about a species when researching is to try and culture it first, you can learn a lot about dietary preferences and behaviors that way. Of course, observing them in their natural habitat would be the best way to learn the former, especially if what they eat is something you'd never thing of offering them, like algae or moss... Then again, it isn't easy to observe most roaches in the wild since they are so skittish and secretive, so you are back to collecting them again.

Can you even tell what a roach eats from a dead specimen, can you dissect it's gut and actually tell what the contents are? The answer is probably obviously yes, but I honestly have no idea.

 

[wizentrop]

Yeah, but often a good way to learn more about a species when researching is to try and culture it first

I said it in my comment. But I will argue that most people keep roaches as their hobby, not to learn about them. In order to study the life history of something new you have to control your factors such as temp, humidity (the obvious ones), but also density, photoperiod, different substrates, food habits, activity preferences etc'. Will roach hobbyists also report their findings to the scientific community? I doubt it.

While in most of the cases you can eyeball the right conditions for keeping some species, the real exotic cockroaches take a bit more challenge.
Let's take Megaloblatta for example. After I figured out their preferred diet, substrate and humidity, even before obtaining oothecae what really struck me as problematic for culturing them is their activity pattern. They CANNOT be kept in confined spaces. This is a flying cockroach, and they do fly A LOT. Like, every night. It must be something crucial in their biology. So they try to take off inside their container over and over until they damage their wings, and this happens quite fast unfortunately. No one would like a culture of broken-wings Megaloblatta.
Another example is the holy grail for many hobbyists - Paratropes. If you think you can culture it by giving it fruits, veggies and dog food, congratulations - you failed. Because they have a predacious nature and they need prey (but also pollen).
Just a couple of examples to show that sometimes things are not exactly simple. In order to learn about an unknown species in captivity, you must have everything monitored and in control. And most important, you need to be ready to fail. Most people do not bother that much.

 

[Hisserdude]

I said it in my comment. But I will argue that most people keep roaches as their hobby, not to learn about them. In order to study the life history of something new you have to control your factors such as temp, humidity (the obvious ones), but also density, photoperiod, different substrates, food habits, activity preferences etc'. Will roach hobbyists also report their findings to the scientific community? I doubt it.

Yeah, that's true, most hobbyists don't care enough to experiment that much, and don't usually report their findings to the scientific community. When I said someone should collect and culture them, then maybe send them to a taxonomist, I was talking about someone who was actually a part of the scientific community, not a hobbyists per say, since it would be valuable for research's sake, but yeah most hobbyists don't actually do a whole bunch of experimenting, they just try to give them conditions roughly similar to their native habitat, and then just see if they do well or die off.

While in most of the cases you can eyeball the right conditions for keeping some species, the real exotic cockroaches take a bit more challenge.
Let's take Megaloblatta for example. After I figured out their preferred diet, substrate and humidity, even before obtaining oothecae what really struck me as problematic for culturing them is their activity pattern. They CANNOT be kept in confined spaces. This is a flying cockroach, and they do fly A LOT. Like, every night. It must be something crucial in their biology. So they try to take off inside their container over and over until they damage their wings, and this happens quite fast unfortunately. No one would like a culture of broken-wings Megaloblatta.
Another example is the holy grail for many hobbyists - Paratropes. If you think you can culture it by giving it fruits, veggies and dog food, congratulations - you failed. Because they have a predacious nature and they need prey.
Just a couple of examples to show that sometimes things are not exactly simple. In order to learn about an unknown species in captivity, you must have everything monitored and in control. Most people do not bother that much.

That is true, some species are quite problematic to culture, and don't make good captives at all. I didn't know that about the Megaloblatta, that's quite a bummer, reminds me of many butterflies, they always try to fly in their enclosures, and even if you have a soft screen cage for them, they can tear their wings to shreds trying to fly, and thus they don't make good captives. If that's the case with Megaloblatta, then they probably shouldn't be kept in captivity either, unless you have a entire room devoted to them.

Wow, would never have guessed Paratropes were predators, that's very interesting! While providing them with prey wouldn't necessarily be that big of a problem, I imagine they couldn't be kept together safely, which means that having just a couple dozen individuals would take up quite a bit of space with all the different containers they'd have to be housed in, and breeding could be another hurdle. And as if that isn't enough, who knows just how hard they are to keep otherwise, what temperature and humidity levels they need, ventilation levels, etc...

Yeah, that's true, most hobbyists wouldn't bother that much to learn much about their roaches, and if they die off people just write it off as "poor survival rates in captivity", or something like that, instead of actually trying to figure out what exactly went wrong.

 

[wizentrop]

This discussion got a little side tracked (sorry, OP!) but you get my point. Research is tricky.

It is known that Paratropes are pollinators, but it felt to me that things were lagging a little if offered pollen and the typical roach diet. When I saw them take down a live prey I couldn't believe my eyes. They do not have large mandibles or raptorial legs, so I assume in the wild they go for soft prey like caterpillars and aphids. How will they do in a communal setup? That remains to be seen...

 

[VolkswagenBug]

Homalosilpha kryzhanovskii is another beautiful species with a lot of white coloration, as nymphs at least. Of course, they haven't made it to the US hobby just yet, but they are established in culture in Europe, so it's probably only a matter of time.

I can't seem to find any pictures of that species. Have you seen any?

 

[pannaking22]

Homalosilpha kryzhanovskii is another beautiful species with a lot of white coloration, as nymphs at least. Of course, they haven't made it to the US hobby just yet, but they are established in culture in Europe, so it's probably only a matter of time.

Yeah I wouldn't say no to a few of those lol

Very interesting with the Paratropes. Kind of disturbing really, but it makes some sense and is a relatively easy hurtle to overcome. Being pollinators (and I assume at least partially diurnal) they should come across caterpillars fairly frequently, so it would be an easy meal for them. If provided with good amounts of soft prey (say wax worms or something like that), I wonder if you could have a dish of those and then keep the roaches more easily. It would essentially be the equivalent of a dish of dry cat/dog food, but would be a soft protein source that may discourage chewing on the cage mates.

 

[Hisserdude]

This discussion got a little side tracked (sorry, OP!) but you get my point. Research is tricky.

It is known that Paratropes are pollinators, but it felt to me that things were lagging a little if offered pollen and the typical roach diet. When I saw them take down a live prey I couldn't believe my eyes. They do not have large mandibles or raptorial legs, so I assume in the wild they go for soft prey like caterpillars and aphids. How will they do in a communal setup? That remains to be seen...

Indeed it is!

Yeah that's really strange, but maybe they aren't completely carnivorous? There are at least a couple videos of Periplaneta americana adults chasing, killing and eating other insects, and certain Eublaberus species will devour soft bodied insects as well, yet they can be reared on dog food, fruits and veggies too. Did the Paratropes seem to do noticeably better when offered live prey? What prey item did you see them eat?

Yeah I wouldn't say no to a few of those lol

Very interesting with the Paratropes. Kind of disturbing really, but it makes some sense and is a relatively easy hurtle to overcome. Being pollinators (and I assume at least partially diurnal) they should come across caterpillars fairly frequently, so it would be an easy meal for them. If provided with good amounts of soft prey (say wax worms or something like that), I wonder if you could have a dish of those and then keep the roaches more easily. It would essentially be the equivalent of a dish of dry cat/dog food, but would be a soft protein source that may discourage chewing on the cage mates.

Yeah, seems like caring for them should be as easy as keeping mantids, if they can't be kept communally, however who knows what other special needs they may have.... Would be quite a pain to keep them constantly fed with wax worms or some other caterpillar, as they usually aren't that cheap, would be great if they took other roaches or crickets in captivity.

I can't seem to find any pictures of that species. Have you seen any?

See here.

 

[VolkswagenBug]

See here.

Wow, that's just amazing. It's like a brighter version of Dorylaea orini with slightly different markings. The adults' wings make it so they aren't as pretty as the nymphs, but still, it would be great if we could get those here.

Also, if your Panchlora sp. whites breed, would you be willing to consider selling them?

 

[VolkswagenBug]

This discussion got a little side tracked (sorry, OP!) but you get my point. Research is tricky.

It is known that Paratropes are pollinators, but it felt to me that things were lagging a little if offered pollen and the typical roach diet. When I saw them take down a live prey I couldn't believe my eyes. They do not have large mandibles or raptorial legs, so I assume in the wild they go for soft prey like caterpillars and aphids. How will they do in a communal setup? That remains to be seen...

Okay, I see "OP" a lot here. What does it mean?

 

[WeightedAbyss75]

Okay, I see "OP" a lot here. What does it mean?

Original person, original post-er, etc. Just refers to the person who started the thread