Rochaina metae Adults!!!

I'm a couple weeks late in announcing this, but for the first time ever, Rochaina have been reared from ooth to adulthood in captivity! And it was done by yours truly, with R.metae! 😁 My first adult male emerged June 16th, with my first female emerging 5 days afterwards.

Interestingly, these have been growing much faster for me than R.bilunata... or at least, half my R.metae have been. This genus seems to be one that is quite territorial, not gregarious like most other roaches, and as such don't really benefit much from the allee effect. About half of the offspring from the first ooth I hatched of this species are still at L3-L4, while the other half are subadults or have matured already. Additionally, all but a couple of the nymphs that hatched out of my second ooth died off after being thrown in the same enclosure as the older nymphs. 

I wouldn't even consider the conditions they were previously in crowded at all, at least not for most roaches. But, after noticing this, and finding my first adults, I moved them to a 5 gallon bin, rather than the 1 gallon jar they were previously in. 

Now, when I moved them, I tried going with a lower ventilation enclosure, with only a third or so of the lid ventilated, to reduce the frequency with which I needed to mist them; this ended with my first pair of adults dying off prematurely, within days of being moved to the new bin. 🥲 I then changed their setup to one with a fully vented lid, and that has seemingly resolved the issue, all subsequent adults that have matured are still alive, and a couple of the females are starting to get rather plump! 😄 Of course, now I have to mist them a few times a week, but it's worth the effort for such stunning species. 

So two new husbandry needs learned, and hurdles overcome:

1. This genus is not at all gregarious, and needs lots of space and surface area for optimal growth. Larger life stages will bully smaller ones for space and food and can severely stunt or even kill them.
2. High ventilation levels are an absolute must for adults, but nymphs can seemingly tolerate lower ventilation, at least longer than adults can.

Valuable information learned, even if learned the hard way. 😅 But this is all part of the process of spearheading the development of a husbandry methodology for a species and genus no one's had success with before, it's all trial and error. Thankfully I've got plenty of individuals to work with still, and am getting very close to closing the loop completely with this amazing species!

Adult male (under ring light)

Adult male (under sunlight)

Adult female (under sunlight)

Male (right) & female (left)

L3/L4 nymph next to adult female; both hatched from the same ootheca

This is a much prettier species than I was expecting TBH, many pictures of them online (including most of mine) really wash their colors out, they are definitely best photographed/viewed under sunlight. 

They are surprisingly calm as adults, fairly slow moving and not very quick to fly, which is the opposite of how I thought they'd act. Their coloration must serve as some warning of bitter taste or mimicry of something else that tastes gross, for them to act so boldly. 

Anyways, that does it for this post! Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉 

I've Got a Fever, & the Only Prescription, is More Parcoblatta!

For those that don't get the reference... Anyways, I got some new Parcoblatta to show off! 😁

First, and most excitingly IMO are these amazing Parcoblatta sp. "inaequalis" from Miami, TX, sent to me by Alan Jeon. P.inaequalis was synonymized with P.pennsylvanica some time ago, however I have it on good authority that genetic analysis has proven that to be a mistake, and that the species inaequalis will be resurrected here sooner or later. 👀 So this is a new species for me, and they are brand new to culture, and I really love the way they look. 😍 They're like, really dark pennsylvanica, males have more squared off pronotum markings than in that species as well, and females seem a tad shorter winged. 

I've got them in a well ventilated setup with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and cardboard roll hides. I initially had given them a 50/50 humidity gradient, but for reasons I'll get to later, I now keep the entire enclosure pretty humid. I am keeping them at around 80-85F°, and am feeding them dog food and fruits. 

Adult male

Adult female

Pair

Unfortunately, and quite bizzarely, most of my females developed prolapses and died, seemingly while trying to produce ooths. 😩 Usually prolapses in roaches are quite a fluke unless severe dehydration or poisoning is involved, and seeing as I don't feed them anything different than the rest of my Parcoblatta, the former seemed the most likely culprit... So I changed things up, and started keeping the entire enclosure humid rather than just half of it. Thankfully, one healthy female remained, and since keeping them more humid she has not had any issues producing ooths consistently without any prolapsing. I just found hatchlings in their setup the other day, so seems I have succeeded in establishing a colony despite these hurdles! 😄

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While I already have Parcoblatta bolliana from Park Crossing, AL, Alan also just sent me some from Elk City, KS. To me they look basically the same, but I'll have to get pics of my AL stock and examine them more closely to see. 

I've got them housed in what is now my standard Parcoblatta setup; a well ventilated container with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and cardboard hides. I'm giving them a 50/50 humidity gradient, and keeping them at around 80-85F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fruits. 

Adult male

Adult female

Pair

These are doing great, and I've already got offspring hatching out, so I'm sure I'll have oodles of them in no time. 😄

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Now these are perhaps the rarest of the genus, and a species I have kept before, but failed due to them having a fungal infection (I never even got around to posting them on the blog!). So, introducing for the first time on this site, Parcoblatta desertae! These came from Amarillo, TX, again courtesy of Alan, and unlike the last stock I got, these seem to be perfectly healthy. 

This species prefers a drier and hotter environment than is normal for the genus, and have given hobbyists a notorious challenge, with no one ever seeming to have gotten theirs past a generation or two for one reason or another. Here's hoping I can break that record. 😁

I've got them in a well ventilated setup with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and eggcrate hides. I'm keeping a third of their substrate moist, the rest bone dry, and have them at around 85F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fruits.

Adult female

Adult male

Pair

A very cute little species, and one found in more remote and barren landscapes than most of the genus. I got a nice sized group to start with, and they have been laying plenty of ooths, so I'm hopeful this is the start of a well established, long lived colony! 🤞

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Last but not least, I got true Parcoblatta pennsylvanica FROM their namesake state of Pennsylvania, courtesy of my buddy Brandon Maines. More specifically, from his backyard, and he was quite specific that he wanted the locality listed as "Magnificent Beast's Backyard, Philipsburg, PA". 😆 

I've tried and failed several times to culture this species from nymphs I've collected myself on the east coast, however I usually only started with a few nymphs collected late in the season, that even after provided a diapause, would always mature at too staggered of rates to breed successfully.

However, this time I received subadults collected early in the Spring that had already overwintered, and they all matured very shortly after I received them. They've been breeding and pumping out ooths, which have already started hatching, so I should have plenty to work with, and hopefully with numbers alone I can break their diapause requirement in one generation!

I've got them in a well ventilated setup with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and eggcrate hides. I'm giving them a 50/50 humidity gradient, and keeping them at around 75-80F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fruits. 

Adult male

Adult female

Pair

A very pretty strain, and pretty large too! Here's hoping they will establish easily for me! 

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉