Is this a Death Head Cockroach?

[FireDrake]

I have recently bought some of what were advertised as true death heads.

Yesterday at a reptile show I was told that true death heads are only about an inch long and anything bigger was a hybrid. It was my understanding that death heads could be 1.5 to 2 inches long. Which one is correct?

This picture is of my newly molted adult.

Thanks!!!

 

[fantasticp]

I think death's heads from people's collections in Europe are generally larger than ones most people have here. It depends on where the guy got his from originally. Excessive inbreeding makes them smaller. Looks like a death's head to me. You'd have to talk to the guy you got them from to get more info.

 

[FireDrake]

Well, he says they are true death heads.... I got them from Blaberus.com

This other guy said that James knowingly got hybrid death heads from someone in Fort Collins, CO and is selling them as pure true Death heads

 

[Digby Rigby]

They look real

even in the "hybrids" you can get some that look real however in a group of those you will see some that look different. If they all look like the one in your picture they are probably real as they tend to look less tear drop shaped then the hybrids or crosses. I may one day post my pics again as the exoticfeeder forums are down. I have sodl the true death heads and stil do and the one in your picture looks like them. They do get over an inch at least 2 inches long.

Digby Rigby balboa28279@mypacks.net

 

[FireDrake]

Yeah this roach in question very well could have been a hybrid since it was part of a hybrid colony, but it stood out like a sore thumb because every other single adult roach there was tan like the cave roaches and this one was BLACK. It really was the reason the conversation came up because I commented that it looked like my death head.... and the guy said then it was impossible for me to have true ones.....

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

If you have non-hybrid death head roaches all the adults look identical. Whoever said one inch misread or misunderstood something.

 

[Stylopidae]

If you have non-hybrid death head roaches all the adults look identical. Whoever said one inch misread or misunderstood something.

I agree...a specimen that tops out at one inch is very small for something in the blaberus genus.

I think someone's trash talking the competition.

 

[FireDrake]

Thanks everyone I feel vindicated, LOL I had a feeling he was wrong!

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Thanks everyone I feel vindicated, LOL I had a feeling he was wrong!

He may have misunderstood when people say the hybrids are bigger (they mean a little bigger, not three times the size). However, the hybrids aren't measurably bigger on average anyway.