My giant cave roaches.

[bugmankeith]

This is an old picture, about a few months ago. New pictures will be up soon.

 

[Gigas]

Australian species?

 

[bugmankeith]

Not sure actually?

 

[Gigas]

They may be, i believe the common name is litter bugs or something

 

[bugmankeith]

Litter Bugs, that's funny. We're called litter bugs if we throw trash around.
I did a little research and they come from South America. They live in caves eating bat guano or young bats that fall to the cave floor. They also eat rotting wood.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

This is an old picture, about a few months ago. New pictures will be up soon.

Those are nymphs of what looks like a Blaberus species. It is difficult to determine which species you have without adult pictures but if the supply you aquired them from is honest then they could be Blaberus giganteus. Those nymphs in your picture are very simular to my Blaberus fusca nymphs.

Post some adult pictures top and bottom views.

John J Starr Jr
.

 

[Gigas]

I kept imagining them as adult, thats why i assumed them to be the australian Species

 

[bugmankeith]

2 days after my females were adults, I let them crawl on my hand, and they instantly jumped off my hand and glided across my bedroom, i'm pretty sure they are Giganteus. I will post pictures once my 3rd nymph molts, which should be in a couple of days, it too is another female, so far I have 3 females.

 

[bugmankeith]

Ok here are the 3 females, they have all their color now.

 

[Randolph XX()]

it's not B.giganteus, looks more like b.fusca/craniifer hybrid
there were some photos on DoubleD's forum of the giganteus /fusca comparison

the most obvious difference is:
fusca or fusca hybrids have stripes on the abdomen from the ventral view wherea giganteus do not

 

[bugmankeith]

Well I got them from james at blaberus.com, and he was supposed to send me giganteus. Are you Positive there is no way they are giganteus, could they be a giganteus/fusca or craniifer hybrid?

 

[bugmankeith]

I visited about 5 different sites on the internet about b.giganteus, and all photos match my cockroaches, so i'm saying they must be giganteus! They could be a hybrid form, but one of their parents had to be giganteus.

 

[Randolph XX()]

u sure?i don't really think it's that hard to tell the differences from the photos
if u have the "RIGHT" source, and a lill effort of some reasearch i guess
http://exoticfeeders.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-222
http://exoticfeeders.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-223
http://exoticfeeders.com/gallery/displayimage.php?pos=-224
real giganteus have longer wings while fusca /fusca hybrid are much more meaty in a sense

 

[bugmankeith]

Well could they be a fusca/giganteus hybrid? My roaches do fly/glide a good distance and hop off my hand, I heard only giganteus have this behavior, they also crave protein (cooked hamburger meat)? Seeing this picture mine look closest to the 3rd roach, because of the yellow lines on the abdomen, but the number and size of the lines varies with my 3 roaches, one of mine only has 3 or 4 lines, while others have almost 10. That nymph does not look like ones I had. This is becoming quite a mystery... you SURE they have no giganteus bloodline Randolph?

These match my nymphs, except for one of my nymphs...

Ok so lets say they have no giganteus bloodline, what am I to do, because James at blaberus.com sold them to me, and everybody here says he is the best, and give him good ratings. If I cant trust him, how will I get a true giganteus, I saved my birthday money to get these guys, and now it seems they are not really what I saved for. I still like them and i'm keeping them, but I REALLY wanted a giganteus!

 

[xelda]

Well, how big are they? B. fuscus and B. giganteus look very similar from the dorsal view, but the fuscus are smaller, hence the name Dwarf cave roach, whereas the giganteus are much larger and are called Giant cave roaches.

A lot of the Blaberus nymphs look the same, and you can really only tell them apart by looking at them in person since what sets them apart are very subtle color differences that are hard to capture on camera. And all of the Blaberus flutter, fly, and hop.

I think I should also add that James has very diverse Blaberus lines, and he has an enviable line of B. giganteus that's unrelated to a lot of what's on the market.

This is what my giganteus look like.

 

[Randolph XX()]

Hi there
without authors authorization, it is violating the copyrihts law to post an un authorized picture
i think it's better to let Dexter know b4 u post his pictures, otherwise, he has the right to sue u


fusca is much more close related to craniifer and more distant from giganteus

giganteus is really territorial, males fight violently, and their diet require potions of rotten wood, plus they have longer wings, which is quite different from fusca groups

therefore there are several forms of "deathheads" in Europe
such as the brown wings craniifer,
u can also type in craniifer in the trust worthy google, and guess wat? u can find roaches that looks identical to urs!

 

[bugmankeith]

I googled, and some look similar, others dont even look alike. I measured them and they come out to 2.5 inches long.

 

[Randolph XX()]

it is more accurate to use mm for mesuaring insects like roaches, cuz they are already small, the margent of error could be pretty big if u use incehs
photo id is not 100% accurate, but it gives u the idea wat ur animals "looks alike" to some others'
i think the best thing to do is to confirm with James, cuz he might've sent u the wrong items

 

[bugmankeith]

In mm it's in the 70's, meaning it could be dwarf or giant.

 

[bugmankeith]

Here are my cockroaches converted onto my TI Graphing Calculator!