Show me your coolest/most colourful roaches

[Dennis Nedry]

I recently got a pair of adult Sun/flower roaches (Ellipsidion species I think, they're native here) and I was just wondering what some of the more vibrant exotic roaches I don't have access to look like.

Pretty sure the female is gravid, I actually caught them in he process of mating an they continued to mate for over an hour afterwards

 

[Sarkhan42]

Therea olegranjeani, Lucihormetica verrucosa, and Simandoa conservarium. These are my favorites all for different reasons.

Therea are fascinating as they’re beetle mimics, Therea peteveriana most iconically being very close to Anthia genus tiger beetles. They reproduce really easily and are super active.

The glowspots I think have to be one of the cutest inverts I’ve kept, they have a lot of social habits, like females caring for young and combat between males to establish a pecking order.

Simandoa were an absolute nightmare to get to reproduce, but they’re incredibly beautiful in person, this is a pretty poor picture. Their wings are flecked with gold and their legs are a bright orange red. They’re completely extinct in the wild as well.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Therea olegranjeani, Lucihormetica verrucosa, and Simandoa conservarium. These are my favorites all for different reasons.

Therea are fascinating as they’re beetle mimics, Therea peteveriana most iconically being very close to Anthia genus tiger beetles. They reproduce really easily and are super active.

The glowspots I think have to be one of the cutest inverts I’ve kept, they have a lot of social habits, like females caring for young and combat between males to establish a pecking order.

Simandoa were an absolute nightmare to get to reproduce, but they’re incredibly beautiful in person, this is a pretty poor picture. Their wings are flecked with gold and their legs are a bright orange red. They’re completely extinct in the wild as well.
View attachment 261804 View attachment 261803 View attachment 261802

How common are simandoa in he hobby? They sound like they have a similar story to P metallica and some of the other endangered inverts in the hobby.

Do you need to seperate male glowspots? Or do they just sort things out themselves?

Super awesome roaches, just wish we had slacker import laws here so I could actually get some of these

 

[Fruchtpudding]

My most colorful roaches? Probably these:

I'm kidding of course, but they do look so much like roaches when they're adult. I mean they are closely related but those wide wings really make them look roach like.

Actually though, these Eublaberus sp. 'Ivory' I got as a replacement for my dubias have really grown on me.


They aren't colorful but still very pretty imo and they're incredibly calm when handled. I almost don't want to use them as feeders (and I haven't, for months) but now that the colony is finally starting to take off after I figured out what they actually like to eat I'm probably gonna have to.

I don't have any images of the nymphs but they look great too. Very shiny dark brown with a yellow dot on the side of each thorax segment.

 

[Sarkhan42]

How common are simandoa in he hobby? They sound like they have a similar story to P metallica and some of the other endangered inverts in the hobby.

Do you need to seperate male glowspots? Or do they just sort things out themselves?

Super awesome roaches, just wish we had slacker import laws here so I could actually get some of these

Simandoa really aren’t that hard to get here but their price tag can be a little higher than some other species, but nothing crazy.

I don’t bother separating the males, their wings especially can get a little beaten up but otherwise they sort themselves out it seems.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

My most colorful roaches? Probably these:
View attachment 261834
I'm kidding of course, but they do look so much like roaches when they're adult. I mean they are closely related but those wide wings really make them look roach like.

Actually though, these Eublaberus sp. 'Ivory' I got as a replacement for my dubias have really grown on me.
View attachment 261836

They aren't colorful but still very pretty imo and they're incredibly calm when handled. I almost don't want to use them as feeders (and I haven't, for months) but now that the colony is finally starting to take off after I figured out what they actually like to eat I'm probably gonna have to.

I don't have any images of the nymphs but they look great too. Very shiny dark brown with a yellow dot on the side of each thorax segment.

Beautiful mantis, those roaches are also much nicer than dubias imo

 

[Derpspider21]

I went to my local pets store looking to buy some hissers but there colony needed to grow get any. Do they really take that long to breed they had about 70 five months ago.

 

[Hisserdude]

I recently got a pair of adult Sun/flower roaches (Ellipsidion species I think, they're native here) and I was just wondering what some of the more vibrant exotic roaches I don't have access to look like.
View attachment 261800
Pretty sure the female is gravid, I actually caught them in he process of mating an they continued to mate for over an hour afterwards

Ugh, you're so lucky, I'd kill to have some of those! They do look like Ellipsidion to me, or perhaps some vibrant species of Balta. Be sure to offer them some sort of pollen or nectar substitute if you can, it may be a requirement for them. I have a feeling they'll also really like fruit.

Some of the neatest roaches in my collection have to be Corydidarum pygmaea, the roly-poly roach:

Lanxoblatta rudis:

Eurycotis improcera:

Panchlora sp. "White":

Dorylaea orini:

Just to name a few of my favorites, I have around 43 different different roach species in my collection ATM, they are my favorite animals.

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Ugh, you're so lucky, I'd kill to have some of those! They do look like Ellipsidion to me, or perhaps some vibrant species of Balta. Be sure to offer them some sort of pollen or nectar substitute if you can, it may be a requirement for them. I have a feeling they'll also really like fruit.

Some of the neatest roaches in my collection have to be Corydidarum pygmaea, the roly-poly roach:

Lanxoblatta rudis:

Eurycotis improcera:

Panchlora sp. "White":

Dorylaea orini:

Just to name a few of my favorites, I have around 43 different different roach species in my collection ATM, they are my favorite animals.

Those are absolute stunners! And yeah, I've been giving them flowers and honey and I've seen one of them eating the honey. i think they just eat anything with sugar. There's also another bigger Ellipsidion sp here and in summer/spring there's at least 5 nymphs in each of my mum's rose flowers. The nymphs look better than the adults IMO

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Actually now that I think about it there's way more variety in the local roaches here than i thought (i think cockroaches might be about to take over my collection )

 

[Hisserdude]

Those are absolute stunners! And yeah, I've been giving them flowers and honey and I've seen one of them eating the honey. i think they just eat anything with sugar. There's also another bigger Ellipsidion sp here and in summer/spring there's at least 5 nymphs in each of my mum's rose flowers. The nymphs look better than the adults IMO

Thanks!

Yeah, they go from flower to flower in the wild, and seem to be brightly colored like bees and wasps, so that predators are less likely to target them despite their diurnal habits.

Actually now that I think about it there's way more variety in the local roaches here than i thought (i think cockroaches might be about to take over my collection )

The amount of beautiful and unique roaches in Australia is overwhelming, you sure are lucky to live there! Roaches are my passion, and keeping them can be quite addicting! I'm sure within a year your collection will be filled with awesome roach species!

 

[Dennis Nedry]

Thanks!

Yeah, they go from flower to flower in the wild, and seem to be brightly colored like bees and wasps, so that predators are less likely to target them despite their diurnal habits.



The amount of beautiful and unique roaches in Australia is overwhelming, you sure are lucky to live there! Roaches are my passion, and keeping them can be quite addicting! I'm sure within a year your collection will be filled with awesome roach species!

I sure hope that's the case! There's a few I'm thinking about right now

I think they might taste bad too, I probably shouldn't use them as feeders.

 

[Lucanus95]

This is the prettiest native species I have IMO. They really live upto their name, little gem cockroach.

Aglaopteryx gemma

 

[Dennis Nedry]

This is the prettiest native species I have IMO. They really live upto their name, little gem cockroach.

Aglaopteryx gemma

They're really something!

 

[Hisserdude]

I sure hope that's the case! There's a few I'm thinking about right now

I think they might taste bad too, I probably shouldn't use them as feeders.

I doubt they are poisonous, pretty sure they just rely on their bright colors and speed alone to get away from predators.

 

[Draketeeth]

This is the prettiest native species I have IMO. They really live upto their name, little gem cockroach.

Aglaopteryx gemma

I notice in the last pic that they seem to be climbers. How do you keep them in since they're so small?

 

[Dennis Nedry]

I notice in the last pic that they seem to be climbers. How do you keep them in since they're so small?

Well if he's got a proper lid on the tub it shouldn't be a problem

 

[Lucanus95]

I notice in the last pic that they seem to be climbers. How do you keep them in since they're so small?

The container I'm using has screw top lid so nothing can escape