Pink roaches!

[xelda]

Well, sorta. It's more of a muted pink. This is Gyna henrardi, aka patchwork roach. This species is the Kenyan sand boa of roaches. They swim around in the substrate and then do the occasional head poking out thing. So cute! I also have Gyna lurida, but they don't seem to be nearly as active as the henrardi since I never see them surface despite being the larger colony of the two.

The nymphs:

 

[Vys]

Very pretty

I just received a batch of G.lurida (sounds a bit like an STD ), and sort of like how you describe them they appear like confused diver-beetles; being very much the first roach I've kept that has entirely ignored eggcrate cartons.

Don't seem to like apples that much, either.

And forgive my ignorance, but from what type of biotope in Africa do these spring from, would you know? I have been unable to find much information regarding this. Humid/dry, 22C/27C?

Edit. lurida, not lyrida.

 

[John J Starr Jr]

Cool

Those are a very cool looking roach xelda. They have great coloration in the wings.

Just an observation but from the pics they appear to only have the typical hooks at the ends of their legs. Could those be NON glass climbing or do they have the suction cup like pads that I can not see in the pics?

Either way they are a very awsome looking roach.

John J Starr Jr

 

[Scolopendra55]

Very nice!! How large are they?

 

[NrthCstInverts]

Those are awesome..... really pretty! (ok does anyones else feel weird calling a roach pretty? lol).

 

[xelda]

Vys, here's a quote from an article I've read:

The genus Gyna comprises many species distributed mainly in forested regions of tropical Africa. They burrow in dust at the bottom of cavities either in treeholes or in termite nest holes, or in the mounds of Driver ant nests (Grandcolas, 1993b, 1994, 1997).

Grandcolas, P. and P. Deleporte (1998). “Incubation of zigzag-shaped oothecae in some ovoviviparous cockroaches Gyna capucina and G. henrardi (Blattaria: Blaberidae).”

John, yes they can climb glass (most of the cool species do) and they fly as well.

Scolopendra - They're not very big, about an inch long.

 

[Vys]

Xelda: Thanks. A little more humid then, I take it (and probably a bit more heat as well) than what I'm currently providing.
That complements the extremely sparse texts found here http://www.lucihormetica.de/arten.html and here http://www.minizoo.donetsk.ua/Roaches.html (long live babelfish ) .

As for climbing: agreed Which is also what makes them both practical and cool. I don't find roaches that burrow throughout their entire lifecycle all that fantastically fun : )

 

[dtknow]

Wow the nymphs are cute little buggers.

 

[Matt K]

Gyna....lurida?

I have seen these in central-western Tanzania. The temp was between 30 and 32 C, humidity around 60%. I am trying to attach the photo I took (and though its on a blade of grass, it was originally scuttling around in the dirt).

Enjoy....

Matt

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

Here's one of the actual pink roaches: Gyna capucina

The G.henrardi look more purple-ish in real life to me.

 

[nepenthes]

Neat roaches but I cant see the first pictures.