Thursday, May 25, 2017

New Roaches From Alan Jeon!!!

Yesterday I received a package from Alan Jeon, I ordered a group of Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red", a beautiful new strain of the Dark Woods Roach, (or "Sexy Legs Roach", as Kyle like to call them) that he has been working on, and a group of Gyna cafforum, a nice species of Gyna that's been on my wishlist for a while now! In addition to sending healthy over counts of both species, he also sent me a few Eurycotis lixa nymphs and a trio of Latiblattella lucifrons adults as a surprise! 😁

Let's start off with the Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red". Normal strains of I.deropeltiformis have black wings as adults, this strain however, has adults with dark red wings, which go nicely with the characteristic red legs of this species!

I have them housed in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate, and lots of little bark pieces on top of that, since they apparently don't like to walk on bare substrate. Additionally I have lots of leaf litter and some egg cartons for them to hide in. I will be feeding them mostly dog/cat food.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:




Really look forward to seeing what the adults look like in person, can't wait until my nymphs mature!

Next up, the Gyna caffrorum! You can never have too many Gyna, and this species, the "Chrome roach", or "Ghost Porcelain Roach", is a very pretty member of the genus! The nymphs look very similar to G.lurida nymphs, and the adults have a very nice white and bluish-grey coloration, with a little bit of black too.

Alan was very generous with the amount he sent, giving me a large overcount on this species, which I really appreciate! 😊

I have them in a medium sized plastic container with a couple inches of moist coconut fiber and lots of leaf litter on top. Will be feeding them the usual dog food, fruits and veggies, along with the dead leaves.

Here are some pictures of them:

Nymph
Adult female

Glad to have this beautiful species in my collection, I'm really loving this genus! I hope to try my hand at the more difficult species soon!

Alan also sent a few small Eurycotis lixa nymphs, a nice species that is relatively new to the hobby! The adults are jet black, and have very tiny, vestigial wings. This species is known for being pretty territorial, and will fight for food aggressively, as well as eat their own ooths under less than perfect conditions. So I will definitely be trying to keep my culture pretty small, once they get going and start breeding, I will probably sell off quite a bit of the offspring to keep the culture small and at a manageable size.

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with semi-moist coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark slabs, dead leaves, and paper towel rolls as hides. I plan on keeping much of the enclosure dry, with some humid retreats for them, and will feed them mostly dog food.

Here are the two photos I was able to get of the nymphs, they are really fast, can climb well, and definitely don't like getting their pictures taken, so these were all I could get:



Can't wait until these mature!

Last, but certainly not least, Alan sent two adult females and one male Latiblattella lucifrons! 😆 This species is very high up on my Ectobiid wishlist, and I am thrilled to have some in my collection! These are the F1 offspring produced from a female Alan caught in Arizona last year, so far it seems the species is not too difficult to breed in captivity!

I have mine housed in a small container with coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark pieces and dead leaves as hides. Will be keeping the enclosure semi-moist, and will feed them mostly dog food, might offer apple pieces from time to time as well, since L.rheni really seem to like those.

Here are a couple pictures of the females, they really don't like to stay still for photographs at all:



The adult females look like giant Cariblatta minima with broader pronotums! I really hope they'll breed for me, I've already seen them mating, (and I hardly EVER see my roaches mate), so that's certainly a good sign! If all goes well, they should start laying oothecae very soon, and with any luck, those will hatch several weeks later, we'll see! 🙂

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this post, today I actually received a package from another friend, so will be posting about that in a couple days! So stay tuned, will see you all soon! 😉

8 comments:

  1. A bunch of exquisite new additions. :)

    Dang, the G.caffrorum adults are really amazing, can't wait until my nymphs mature and I'm able to witness them in person! Hope they do well for you!

    You finally acquired the little beasts, you must tell me, have you been bitten yet? ;)

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    1. Thanks! :)

      Yeah, the G.caffrorum look amazing as adults, the males especially seem to have quite vivid markings, (and are more skittsh, so I won't be getting pictures of those anytime soon!). Hope yours mature soon!

      Haha no, but they are tiny, and I haven't really held them since they are so skittish. :p

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    2. Thanks! Are the other Gyna besides G.centurio really as hyper as they are supposed to be? The only adult I have right now is a centurion, but it's so well behaved that it is hard to imagine the other members of its genus being so crazy! lol

      Well if you ever do I assure you that it will happen. lol In fact, just yesterday I was trying to get some nice handling pics, so I go to pick up one of the larger nymphs and when I get it onto my hand, it bites my palm, runs up my arm, bites it, runs to the top of my hand, bites it, and then does an acrobatic jump back into the enclosure! :(

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    3. Yes, you really can't open the enclosures at night without the males trying to fly away, and handling them even during the day often leads to some craziness! :p G.centurio seem to be pretty well behaved compared to the other Gyna in the hobby, that's for sure!

      Wow, aggressive little buggers lol! It really didn't want to be held, did it?

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    4. At least I'll know what to look forward to when my G.lurida and caffrorum mature.

      I don't think any roach wants to be held, but these certainly have the most aggressive response to it, you'd think they were predatory if you didn't know better. lol

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    5. Yeah, definitely don't open their enclosure at night man, your males will fly right out of the enclosure any chance they get! The female stay underground most of the time, but if disturbed they'll go crazy too and try to fly away.

      I just handled one of my little nymphs today, couldn't illicit a biting response, once they get bigger though I'm sure they'll try nipping me! :)

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    6. I'll be sure to take note of that. lol

      Yeah, the little guys are a bit more timid, but older individuals will bite the heck out of you! BTW I'm not sure why you're happy about them nipping you, it hurts! :p

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    7. I just want to know what it feels like lol! :p

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