Elegant, Extraordinary, Eustegasta!

Several years back, I saw a member of Arachnoboards post a picture of a very pretty roach they were keeping, collected from the border between Cameroon and the Congo in Africa. The adult was a beautiful metallic green color, with orange spots on the wings, and after some research, we in the comments section were able to ID it as Eustegasta buprestoides (some images of this species were falsely IDd as Oxyhaloa buprestoides, but that species differs markedly in morphology, and is brown when mature).

Now, this breeder was in Scotland, and didn't want to ship outside the country, only handing them off to one breeder from the UK who made the trip there to meet up in person. I've been painstakingly tracking the growth and spread of this species in the EU hobby for YEARS now, and FINALLY, after much anticipation, I have a culture of 15 small nymphs thanks to György Fiam. 😁

Before we get to the setup, some neat facts about this species. It's a Blaberid, currently not assigned to any subfamily. The nymphs are straw colored when young, turning orange in later instars, and then finally metallic green with a bluish tinge at maturity, with four orange spots on the tegmina. All life stages burrow through adults are more surface active, nymphs can't climb but adults can climb and fly. Overall husbandry seems similar to Panchlora and certain Pycnoscelus spp.. 

I've got mine set up in a moderately ventilated container with an inch of coconut fiber substrate, which I'm keeping humid. The temperature is about 75-80F°, and I'm feeding them dog food and fruits.

Here are some pictures of the small nymphs:

They may not look like much now, but believe you me, the adults are absolutely stunning, I am so happy to finally have this species and hopefully be able to introduce them to the US hobby! 😁 

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