Blaberus comparison

[John J Starr Jr]

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

 

[Texas Blonde]

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.

 

[OldHag]

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

 

[bistrobob85]

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.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

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.

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
.

 

[OldHag]

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

 

[Scolopendra55]

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

 

[Dark Raptor]

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

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).

 

[John J Starr Jr]

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

 

[John J Starr Jr]

Clear Wing Craniifer

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

 

[Dark Raptor]

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.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

Blaberus species

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.

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
.

 

[xelda]

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.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

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

 

[billopelma]

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?

 

[Digby Rigby]

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

 

[dtknow]

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.

 

[Dom]

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

 

[xelda]

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

 

[Digby Rigby]

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