Anyone ever seen this?

[Stylopidae]

was the little dude born like that, or did it change color? Interesting theory: there is such a thing called Chimarism, where two distinct fertilized eggs fuse together, resulting in an individual with two sets of DNA. It has been documented in mammals (humans and horses that I know of). Perhaps that is what happened? There are cases of humans having a "patchwork" pattern on their skin- two different skin pigments from two different sets of DNA in one person. Chimarism is extremely rare, but it's a possiblility.

Also somewhat common in plants and I've heard of it in a few other animals. I don't think this is a case of this, though.

What's interesting to me is that it's legs and upper thorax capapice are deformed, which tells me it's most likely genetic. It would be interesting to try to breed it, but I wouldn't think that colony would thrive because the coloration seems to be (from what I can tell) attached to the deformity.

 

[Talkenlate04]

I heard the roach just died.

It did die....... but it was eaten by other colony members. There was the back half left but everything else was picked at. That I thought was strange because they are eating their food at a rapid rate. Hmm Maybe they need more. I see them from time to time. I am going to have to look out for them more now.

the coloration seems to be (from what I can tell) attached to the deformity.

I agree with this now. At first it seemed to be an AOK roach other then the color, but when I watched it more it was favoring the normal colored side when it walked. And it did not quite walk in circles but it came close to doing that. Maybe big circles. Maybe it was a deformity....... Weird that it made it to that size then hit a wall and could not mature. It was a female too I think. But I knew I had it in my colony since it was small about 2 months before those pics and it looked the same the whole time.