# Dubia giving birth



## radicaldementia (Dec 29, 2008)

This is awesome.  I opened up my dubia colony last night to grab some feeders and I found a female giving birth right out in the open.  I've found newborn babies many times, but I've never actually seen them hatching from the oothica.  It's really cool, they all seem to suddenly pop out at the same time and then they immediately begin eating their egg shell.

[YOUTUBE]wdlpRR5R76o[/YOUTUBE]

You can see it looks like the oothica has 2 rows of eggs, with the babies in each row facing each other.






Eating the egg shells with the mother standing guard






I checked about 15 minutes later and the babies were already running around introducing themselves to the rest of the colony.






So this totally made my day....and no, I didn't use any of the babies as feeders.  I figure they should at least get a fair chance :}


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## Vulgaris (Dec 29, 2008)

That is so STRANGE!!! 

Those babies are cute though

But the mother gives me the hebegibes. wheres her wings?

Thanks for sharing this by the way, I never knew roaches gave live birth!


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## radicaldementia (Dec 29, 2008)

Female dubia don't have full wings, only little vestigial stubs.

Actually, as far as I know most tropical roaches give live birth, but it isn't "real" live birth.  Real live birth, as with humans and other mammals, is when the embryo develops directly connected to the mother without an egg shell.  With these roaches, the babies still develop in eggs, it's just that the mother incubates the eggs inside her until the moment they begin to hatch.


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## Rochelle (Dec 29, 2008)

Isn't that the neatest thing ever?   
We've seen all our roaches do this and it never gets old...
Excellent pics too, BTW!


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## brothaT (Dec 29, 2008)

I've only seen this once with a Discoid but it was amazing.  Gread vid.


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## sugaree (Dec 29, 2008)

ooooo facinating :]


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## jasen&crystal (Dec 29, 2008)

that was cool i plan to start using dubia for feeders too crickets stink and die so easy i think it will be easyer to raise dubia and just buy crickets once in a while


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## arachyd (Dec 29, 2008)

Awesome! I've been trying to catch mine in the act but was never able to see that.


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## RoachGirlRen (Dec 30, 2008)

Fantastic photos of a rare sight! Thanks so much for sharing!


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