Anyone around the Appalachian Mountains?

Gsc

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
538
I was seeing if anyone lived around the Appalachian Mountains...(Georgia, Alabama, Tenn., Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia or Alabama). There is a wood eating roach known as the Brown Hooded Wood Roach (Cryptocerus punctulatus ssp.) that lives there in small colonies within rotten logs... Has anyone seen these while collecting/hiking in those areas? I was considering driving out east (I'm in Texas) to hunt for them...
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
2,506
I was seeing if anyone lived around the Appalachian Mountains...(Georgia, Alabama, Tenn., Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia or Alabama). There is a wood eating roach known as the Brown Hooded Wood Roach (Cryptocerus punctulatus ssp.) that lives there in small colonies within rotten logs... Has anyone seen these while collecting/hiking in those areas? I was considering driving out east (I'm in Texas) to hunt for them...
They are pretty neat but they take 4-5 years to reach adulthood and don't like to be looked at often (they live in well rotted logs) and don't like high temperatures (by don't like I mean die). I have a few nymphs that just reached adulthood after four and a half years.
 

Gsc

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
538
Hey Orin!

Yeah, I just read that nymphs HAVE to be with parents for a minimum of 3 years for their gut flora to stabalize/establish itself (this was a limiting factor to their expansion)... When you say no high temps, are high 70's/low 80 WAY too hot for them?...being from Texas, thats about house temps during the summers. I saw that the lowest elevation they have been found was in Alabama at 244m...figured that'd be the highest temp for them 9but not sure of yearly temps in that area).

Thanks,
Graham
 

Elytra and Antenna

Arachnoking
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Sep 12, 2002
Messages
2,506
High temps don't kill them right away, but appear to kill off the digestive fauna and they then die in a month or two. High temps would be above 75F.
 

Gsc

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
538
Wow, thanks for the info..next time I'm out there I'd like to see them in the wild... it's amazing how much you learn from keeping some of these species in captivity...

Do the CB stock seem anymore tolerent of higher temps or are you not risking it?

Thanks again..
 

ScorpDemon

ArachnoScorpion
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 5, 2005
Messages
595
I've seen them several times Graham. They are cool looking critters.
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
Hey those look pretty interesting:cool: . I'd never heard of those before:? . It's fun when you go looking for stuff like this, you usually find something else in the process that is just as, or even more interesting.
 

Tleilaxu

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
May 7, 2006
Messages
1,272
So since they don't like high temps, that means they need to be kept like the velvet worms?
 

xelda

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
372
I read a fascinating article where they were able to study Cryptocercus behavior by fixing plexiglass along one side of a colony, so you could observe everything like an ant farm though not with normal lighting. The article is "On the Social Organisation, Alarm and Fighting in the Primitive Cockroach Crytocercus punctulatus Scudder" by Gunter Seelinger and Ute Seelinger.

I read this several months ago, so I'm just going off of my memory, but I remember they mentioned that each colony consists of one adult pair that appears to only produce one brood in their lifetime. They devote their entire adult life to caring for the brood. One of the habits they noted was that several times a day, the younger nymphs would line up around each adults' abdomen to get their gut fauna transfer.
 

Gsc

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 22, 2004
Messages
538
Thats very awesome Xelda... If you ever started a colony, you could never really get rid of them without almost feeling bad..lol... There is alot of research that has been done on them... roaches still amaze me!
 

Galapoheros

ArachnoGod
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 4, 2005
Messages
8,982
.. There is alot of research that has been done on them... roaches still amaze me!
Ha! Feels good not to be afraid arthros and herps like so many other people are, right?... I understand why people are but, I just feel like it's a phobia. That is a pretty weird species. Surprised I'd never heard of it until now.
 
Top