# Blaberus comparison



## John J Starr Jr (Mar 7, 2006)

Blaberus comparison,

from left to right...

...fusca, craniifer, discoidalis, parabolicus.

Yea I know somebody has allready done this idea. This is a newer picture and I have my current four Blaberus species with a couple of different ones in this photograph.  Each one of these animals are 100% perfect specimens. Please feel free to comment on it and if you would answer the above poll question if you have the time. Thanks...







John J Starr Jr


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## Texas Blonde (Mar 7, 2006)

I voted for discoidalis, partly because its the only species of Blaberus I have right now.  I am really looking forward to getting all the species you listed, but I still think my discoids will be my favorites.  I love their coloring as nymphs, and think the adults have the prettiest colored wings, in the light I have in my animal room, they look gold.


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## OldHag (Mar 7, 2006)

I voted for Craniifer..but I love the color black   what about B. giganteus?? I like how big they are.


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## bistrobob85 (Mar 7, 2006)

Hm, this post is a nice occasion for people like me, hehe, to ask for the major differences between the blaberus ssps, as for the advantages of the different possible colonies... Which ones CAN actually climb on glass, which ones breed the most easily, which ones grow the fastest and on which food?!?! A post of the Blaberus genus could actually be made a sticky, like for how to breed superworms... What do you guys think?!?!

 phil.


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 7, 2006)

*Blaberus*

.
I chose the B.parabolicus because they seem to breed just as fast as the B.discoid, live long up to 2 years, and are more meatier than the simular sized B.craniifer.



			
				OldHag said:
			
		

> I voted for Craniifer..but I love the color black   what about B.giganteus?? I like how big they are.


I have read that the B. giganteus are 3_to_4_inches long. In the above picture the B.fusca is exactly 2_1/2_inches long.  

Hello bistrobob85, that sounds like a very good idea to me. Maybe everyone could include pics and information of their Blaberus species to this thread. Keep it going!

John J Starr Jr
.


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## OldHag (Mar 7, 2006)

I have some giganteus! Heres some for ya.
I think the ones without wings look like trilobytes


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## Scolopendra55 (Mar 7, 2006)

I like B.fusca, but if B.gigantea was on the list it would be a different story.


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 7, 2006)

I also voted for B. craniifer... I love *Dark* colors  



			
				bistrobob85 said:
			
		

> Which ones CAN actually climb on glass, which ones breed the most easily, which ones grow the fastest and on which food?!?! A post of the Blaberus genus could actually be made a sticky, like for how to breed superworms... What do you guys think?!?!


All _Blaberus_ species don't climb on glass and you can keep them in the similar way. In Poland we have probably only B. craniifer 'clear line'. Almost all specimens that are sell are hybrids (fusca, giganteus or discoidalis).


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 10, 2006)

*Blaberus*

Hey OldHag, that is one large Blaberus. Just the nymph of the Blaberus giganteus is monsterous.  I think that I will want some giganteus sometime in the future.

They do look very much like the fusca except that my fusca have a smaller body length of 2.5 inches. The fusca seem to have more black running down the wing area from the pronotum to the black band across their wings and the black on the fusca's pronotum is kind of a hexagonal shape while the giganteus's black on their pronotums appear to be more like a crown shape, very simular to the craniifer's black mark on their pronotum.

Owe, for anybodies information, I did have one other reason that I did choose the Blaberus parabolicus out the four species in first post of this thread. While this is just an observation of mine the parabolicus seem to be not as skiddish as any of my other Blaberus species so far. While all of my species will dart with sudden movements or sudden light changes they seem to freek out the least amount and come back out much sooner than any of the other Blaberus species that I have.

Hey Dark Raptor, I saw a picture of that craniifer clear line one time somewhere in a quick online search but I have not able to find it again. Would you by any chance have a picture or a link to that picture anywhere??? I want to compare it to the U.S. black line. I have also heard of a U.S. brown line of craniifer that could be a hybrid of some type. THANKS!  

Thanks for everybodies posts, I hope that more people will place Blaberus photos and information into this thread as time goes on so that others new to roaches can look at them for comparison.

John J Starr Jr


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 11, 2006)

*Clear Wing Craniifer*



			
				Dark Raptor said:
			
		

> I also voted for B. craniifer... I love *Dark* colors
> 
> All _Blaberus_ species don't climb on glass and you can keep them in the similar way. In Poland we have probably only B. craniifer 'clear line'. Almost all specimens that are sell are hybrids (fusca, giganteus or discoidalis).


Hello Dark Raptor,

Is this the clear wing craniifer that you are talking about? This one looks like a miniture fusca to me. It looks pretty cool to me, I would like to have a colony of those someday.

http://www.faunology.co.uk/shop/product.php?productid=18475&cat=248&bestseller

http://www.faunology.co.uk/shop/product_images/t_16170.jpg






John J Starr Jr


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 11, 2006)

Hi

I've forgotten about this thread :8o 

Here are two pictures with roaches that you can get in Poland (I don't know how it looks in other parts of Europe).
Blaberus sp. "giganteus" hybrid
http://www.biofil.pl/Zwierzeta/Owady/Pictures/Maxi/blaberus.jpg
http://www.city.poznan.pl/turystyka/zoo/ilustr/n034.jpg

There are clear lines of B. craniifer in my country. I believe I'll get some specimens next month, so I'll be able to post some pics.

I'd be very gratefull if someone has electronic version of key to identification new world Blattodea (especially Eublaberus and Blaberus species). I can't find it in Poland, because nobody work with that group of animals.


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 11, 2006)

*Blaberus species*



			
				Dark Raptor said:
			
		

> Hi
> 
> I've forgotten about this thread :8o
> 
> ...


I had asked that question at different locations throughout the net with no response. I finally found a highly detailed document that you can use in a dissection of the roach for identification. After all of my species hit the super colony sizes I am not worried about sacrificing a few roaches for actual identification through dissection. Here is a list of some of the species from the PDF which is over 20 megs in size. Some of the species names were also used as a species grouping names in the article so do not get confused. Many times a species name in science may be used as both a species name and a species grouping name. Anyway here is a part of the species list and the links...

Blaberus anisitsi
Blaberus atropus
Blaberus boliviensis
Blaberus brasilianus
Blaberus colosseus
Blaberus craniifer
Blaberus discoidalis
Blaberus fusiformis
Blaberus giganteus
Blaberus minor
Blaberus parabolicus
Blaberus scutatus
Blaberus trapezoideus

Blaberus assellus ???
Blaberus latissimus ???

Blaberus fusca ???

http://psyche2.entclub.org/articles/76/76-217.pdf

http://psyche.entclub.org/76/76-217.html

...plus there may be even more species of Blaberus that I have not found as of yet but this is as far as I got in my research as of last night. PLEASE EVERYONE POST informational links as well as your photos and information to this forum thread for everybodies benefit if you get the chance! THANKS! 

John J Starr Jr
.


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## xelda (Mar 11, 2006)

John J Starr Jr said:
			
		

> Many times a species name in science may be used as both a species name and a species grouping name.


If you see _Blaberus_ sp., that means it's an unspecified species within the genus _Blaberus_.  But if you see _Blaberus_ spp., then it's referring to all the species of _Blaberus_ collectively, since spp. is plural.

I know you like to list the roach species you own practically everywhere you go, so I wanted to point out that you're technically supposed to italicize the genus and species.  Nobody on these forums really does it, but it's standard biology etiquette.  Secondly, it's _atropos_ and _fuscus_, not "atropus" and "fusca."

And thirdly, taxonomy is constantly changing.  Nothing is set in stone because we are constantly changing our understanding of how animals are related to each other. The classifications we have for cockroaches were built on morphological characteristics, which was not the most reliable way to do it as we are beginning to discover through the use of DNA analysis.  Even though a document would list certain species, that doesn't mean they are all different species.  Someone can easily come along and reorganize the list because they determined that so-and-so is really a suspecies of such-and-such, or that so-and-so is really just a morph of such-and-such and not separate species.


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 11, 2006)

*Clarification*

Thanks for the clarification xelda.  I have to admit that I never italicize the genus or the species name. I had only learned that the Genus name begins with an upper case letter and the species name begins with a lower case letter as a rule. I will remember to italicize from here on out.

Yes, I did know that the taxonomy is constantly changing sometimes several times a year depending on the species of animal or plant and many other people are not aware of this fact. Thanks for that information as well xelda, it could help out many people.  

I think that most of us are actually looking for the current _species of the Blaberus Genus_ list if it is available and as many pictures to use as identification as possible. I myself am fairly new to the tropical roaches but since I was a child I wanted to become an entomologist or a herpetologist so I spent a great deal of time in that area of study until I became interested in engineering and computers. I have allready had folks from around the world contact me who are interested in aquiring some of my species so identification knowledge helps me out a great deal.

I am getting very busy with the things of life again this month so I may not be able to post for a little while. Please everyone, keep this thread going with all of the _Blaberus species_ information, pictures, and links that you can come up with in your spare time. This will definitely help out so many people who are interested in the _Blaberus Genus_.

Cya,

John J Starr Jr


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## billopelma (Mar 11, 2006)

Couldn't resist picking up a couple dozen of these, as nymphs, at my local herp wholesaler. They wanted 5 bucks ('winter shipping' surcharge) each for the adults but only half a buck for the nymphs. They where being sold as false deathheads. This one was the only really big nymph and is the first one to mature. She's about 2.5" but I seem to remember the other adults at the store being bigger, like the full width across my fingers. First I thought they might be giganteus, then 'fuscus', now I'm wondering if they're a hybrid like in Dark Raptor's pics. I tossed 'em in with my E. distanti's and the nymphs look so similar in the confusion they're hard to tell apart. 
Any guesses/opinions?


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## Digby Rigby (Mar 12, 2006)

*More killer less filler*

As you can see the fusca has a larger body than the giganteus:
Female fusca on the left giganteus in the middle top view








giganteus in the middle fusca on the right:







Here is a parabolicus:







Here is true carniifer.  if you got these then you got them from stock that came from me or people I sold them to.  







and since I dont know how to do a custom avatar and I want a lizard pic in my post here everyone loves these and they are a Digby Rigby exclusive and they arent even geckos!







DigbyRigby@exoticfeeders.com

You cant win a silver medal you can only lose the gold


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## dtknow (Mar 12, 2006)

How do you guys know that what you have is a hybrid (Blaberus sp. giganteus)?

Any comparisons in size to G. portentosa? I always thought giganteus were longer.


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## Dom (Mar 12, 2006)

Hey Digby, what are those lizards? Sweet!! Look like some type of agama.


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## xelda (Mar 12, 2006)

When it comes to size comparisons, it doesn't make sense to compare a dried, shriveled up _giganteus_ with a fresh dead _fusca_.  :?


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## Digby Rigby (Mar 12, 2006)

*Not Agamas*

They are canopy dwellers from South America.  More like iguanids than agamas.  Insectivorous they eat invertebrates proprtionally small for their head size like roach nymphs, ants, termites, springtails etc.  Here is another pic fresh off the plane the first pic I posted was the 2005 model here is a 2004 fresh off the plane.  What do you think of this for an avatar?






  The hand in the picture is not mine.  Now back to our regularly scheduled program!:clap: 







DigbyRigby@exoticfeeders.com


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## Digby Rigby (Mar 12, 2006)

*You are correct*

Its not dried and shriveled it is alive both were random specimens taken from 2 different enclosures;P


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## Dark Raptor (Mar 13, 2006)

Many thanks to John J Starr Jr for this link!
Now it should be much easier to ID _Blaberus_ species


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 21, 2006)

*Species*



			
				billopelma said:
			
		

> Couldn't resist picking up a couple dozen of these, as nymphs, at my local herp wholesaler. They wanted 5 bucks ('winter shipping' surcharge) each for the adults but only half a buck for the nymphs. They where being sold as false deathheads. This one was the only really big nymph and is the first one to mature. She's about 2.5" but I seem to remember the other adults at the store being bigger, like the full width across my fingers. First I thought they might be giganteus, then 'fuscus', now I'm wondering if they're a hybrid like in Dark Raptor's pics. I tossed 'em in with my E. distanti's and the nymphs look so similar in the confusion they're hard to tell apart.
> Any guesses/opinions?


Just my simple opinion but the shape of the black portion of the pronotum is sort of like that of the giganteus but a little bit different and also are those red markings in somewhat of the shape of a death's head that I can see  

John J Starr Jr


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 21, 2006)

*Thanks*



			
				Dark Raptor said:
			
		

> Many thanks to John J Starr Jr for this link!
> Now it should be much easier to ID _Blaberus_ species


Thanks,  

I hope that others will post any of their pictures and information about any species of the Blaberus genus in this thread. I like any and all Blaberus pictures.

Owe, every time I look I see another pair of my Blaberus parabolicus breeding. I have not seen many young as of yet, maybe about 25 or 50, and none of the newborns since I placed all of my parabolicus into my topdown designed 20L aquarium. I really do not want to dig out the egg cartons just to look so maybe I will take a head count when I clean their cage in a few months.

John J Starr Jr


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## John J Starr Jr (Mar 24, 2006)

*Dark Blaberus fusca anomaly*

Here is a picture of an interesting Blaberus fusca anomaly. This one is extremely dark in comparison to any of the other Blaberus fusca adults in my collection. Since this specimen came from pure "Blaberus_fusca" lines the darker coloration could be a recessive gene that shows up once in while when a pair of genes combine in the same animal. I have had things like this happen many times over the years with other species of plants and animals.  







If you are interested I have several other pictures of this animal with different camera angles in the Blaberus fusca area of the links below my name in this thread.

Please feel free to comment all that you want to about this picture or any of the other Blaberus fusca pictures located at the links below name. 

Thanks,

John J Starr Jr


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## xelda (Mar 25, 2006)

Digby Rigby said:
			
		

> Its not dried and shriveled it is alive both were random specimens taken from 2 different enclosures;P


That _giganteus_ is very obviously dried up.  You can tell by the curl of the abdomen.  Anyone who raises a large colony and has to regularly remove dead roaches will know what I'm talking about.  The white-ness of the head and the broken legs are another clue that it's not even freshly dead.

This is what a live _giganteus_ looks like:






And just so you can get an idea of size, this is a _giganteus_ next to a discoid.  Both are males.  Sorry for the blurriness.


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## John J Starr Jr (Jun 9, 2006)

*Blaberus update, FYI*

Here is a current update on my Blaberus species to date, FYI if you are considering one of these species maybe this will aid in your choice.

Blaberus discoidalis, 150 nymphs aquired in August 2005.
100 origionals left alive which are all adults. The reason in which some probably did die could have been from my errors. Now I have over 500 up to 1000 small to medium Blaberus discoidalis nymphs in addition to the 100 adults. I quit counting discoid nymphs at 500 when I got to the smallest ones. While this is an easily excited species they still seem to reproduce very quick.  

Blaberus parabolicus, 150 nymphs aquired in November 2005.
I have around 125 origionals left alive which are all adults. Now I have over 200 small Blaberus parabolicus nymphs as of 2 weeks ago. By now it could be 300 to 400 parabolicus nymphs but I will wait to disturb them for a few more weeks. I suspect that this parabolicus colony will catch up and pass my discoidalis over the summer. These seem to be the best choice out of all of my Blaberus species for producing new nymphs very fast. So far they are the most adjustable of all of my Blaberus species. I can do a 100% clean out by moving them into smaller quarters then back into the clean cage and they will go on as nothing ever happened. They will still get rushed from CO2 exhaled and sudden changes or lights but they adjust very fast IMVHO. They also seem to be the least picky when it comes to food choices out of all four of my current Blaberus species. :clap: 

Blaberus craniifer, 150 nymphs aquired in November 2005.
I have about 125 origionals left alive which are all adults. Now I have over 100 small Blaberus craniifer nymphs as of 2 weeks ago. By now it could be close to 200. I am going to wait to disturb them for a few more weeks. These guys are very jumpy and easily disturbed. It may take longer than I thought to produce a decent sized colony of them since they appear to need absolute, DO NOT DISTURB, to produce new young and they seem to be more picky about which foods to eat than any of my Blaberus other species.

Blaberus fusca, 150 very small nymphs aquired in November 2005.
I have about 150 origionals left alive which only about half are adults. No offspring have been produced as of yet but I do expect some this summer 2006. Even though I started with younger nymphs this species does appear to take a little bit longer to mature into adults than any of my other Blaberus species. When their nymphs are on the last instar they are extremely huge in size and well over 2 inches long. I have noticed that the females of this species in my colony are all much darker and larger than the males. The females all seem to have a much broader black bar than the males have. If you visit one of my sites that are listed below and view the pictures that I currently have you will notice several pictures of a very dark fusca. I now have TWO of the extreme dark females with the black bar that extends from the middle of the back clear up to the pronotum in my collection. 







All of my origional 4 Blaberus colonies came from James at http://www.blaberus.com

Do to the genetic drift that commonly occurs in any person's plant or animal collection I am considering using other reputible breeders of which some have posted to this thread in addition to trading roach for roach on an identical species with other individuals to help maintain healthy genetic diversity within my colonies. Using multiple sources seems to be a standard practice in todays world for any plant or animal breeding hobby.

UPDATE: Has anybody ever seen the following animal up close in person? It appears top be around 1.5 to maybe 1.75 inches long. I sure would like to have a colony of small clear winged Blaberus animals like this one.

http://www.faunology.co.uk/shop/product.php?productid=18475&cat=248&bestseller

http://www.faunology.co.uk/shop/product_images/t_16170.jpg






Special Thanks to everyone who has contributed to this thread and any continued future additions. I hope that all of the information is of some benefit to the new roach owner.

John J Starr Jr
.


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## bugmankeith (Jun 9, 2006)

I'm sorry, but my favorites are Blaberus Giganteus. I love how they sometimes "hop" or flutter, the males in this species sometimes fight too, they are a tough cockroach!


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## John J Starr Jr (Jun 13, 2006)

*Blaberus Parabolicus FYI*

Well, I was incorrest on my 300 to 400 estimation of new Blaberus parabolicus nymphs that were born here. I have well over 500 small parabolicus nymphs and 54 very gravid females. Anyway I think that they are gravid since they are females and all of their abdomens have become so swollen up that it is like dragging a piece of wheeled luggage around for them. Awe yes, life is good for the parabolicus in this colony.

While I only have limited experience on the Blaberus species so far I will go out on a limb and claim that out of my current four species...

parabolicus
discoidalis
craniifer
fusca

...the parabolicus is your best choice for a Blaberus feeder species to raise. This colony will catch up to and pass my discoidalis colony in numbers before winter of 2006. They have a very curious attitude and they are extremely active for a Blaberus. While they do get ghosted sometimes and they will run away they are no where near as skiddish as any of my other four species. They do seem to come right back out after any sudden changes as though nothing had ever happened. Also the nymphs and the adults are very chunky animal for a Blaberus species of roach. Even though this sounds like an ad in a commercial I am most definitely not saling any roaches at this time. I am just posting my current observations for those people who may be attempting to make a valuable choice.



			
				bugmankeith said:
			
		

> I'm sorry, but my favorites are Blaberus Giganteus. I love how they sometimes "hop" or flutter, the males in this species sometimes fight too, they are a tough cockroach!


Yea, if I had thought about it more first and known I should have placed these Blaberus in the list...

Blaberus anisitsi
Blaberus atropus
Blaberus boliviensis
Blaberus brasilianus
Blaberus colosseus
Blaberus craniifer
Blaberus discoidalis
Blaberus fusiformis
Blaberus giganteus
Blaberus minor
Blaberus parabolicus
Blaberus scutatus
Blaberus trapezoideus

Blaberus assellus ???
Blaberus latissimus ???

Blaberus fusca ???

As far as I know there are only 8 pure strains currently available in the market place in the U.S. but then again that is just the limitation of my knowledge about the U.S. Blaberus availability.

Well, I have to get back to developing software so SYAL.

John J Starr Jr


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