Discoid roach, what is this?

[slingshot71]

This is the third time in 3 months that I have seen this, though this is the first time still emerging from the Discoid. I know Discoids are supposed to give birth to live young, so is this an infertile egg case?

 

[siliconthoughts]

It's an ootheca (egg case)

Discoids (and other live bearing roaches) internally carry their ootheca, rather than scattering them like egglayers. The females extrude the ootheca, let it dry and then rotate it and pull it back into their abdomen. Occasionally you will find dried up ones in the cage that are aborted. Best to just leave them alone while they have the ootheca extruded. I haven't seen mine drop one, but I assume they can if disturbed and they don't hatch outside the roach.

 

[slingshot71]

Thanks for the quick reply. Great information. I've only had this very small starter colony (about 15 nymphs and 15 adults, with 4 or 5 adult females) for a few months and I've found two other ootheca aborted. I guess I'm disturbing my gravid ladies a bit too much and stressing them out. By the way, shortly after taking those pics, that one was dropped also. I've now moved them to a slightly larger enclosure and added a 8" high cardboard climbing wall for them.

Thanks again.

Kevin

 

[Aquanut]

If they aren't already, they prefer being kept in the dark. It reduces stress, they are more active and probably breed better.

 

[Scolopendra55]

Great starter colony you got there nice settup to

 

[slingshot71]

Great starter colony you got there nice settup to

Thanks
I picked up this sterilite container and transfered them to it the day I took the picture (notice no poo yet!). It's about the size of a 10 gallon aquarium. I really liked the hinged lid w/ carry handle but the holiday colors are sort of cheesy for a roach hotel.

The idea for the climbing/hiding wall was pretty much stolen from Code Monkey, but his is much nicer, being constructed with sheets of cork held together with bolts. Here is his original thread: http://www.arachnoboards.com/ab/showthread.php?t=463&highlight=roach+terrarium

I had just put it in prior to snapping the pic, but now most of my adults and many of the nymphs are hanging out on it. It was a quick fix as I had no paper egg carton material to work with, but it works pretty well and allows for easy access to the roaches, so I think I'll stick with it.

Kevin