Dubia Colors

[Kreamcheese]

So I recently noticed a few of my newly matured dubias have a strikingly different color than my other ones. I thought that maybe they haven't fully hardened yet from their molt but it's been days.
The top pic is the new color of dubia I am seeing. And the second is the normal colors I usually see. Both are mature females. Anybody else have different color dubias like this?

[MonsterPyxie]

I forget what its called, but the first one looks like its from high humidity, it can mess with there color's.

The second one looks normal, but bright colored. funny thing is me and the wife where talking about this tonight. We picked out a few roaches, and noticed how some of the females where MUCH brighter orange colors, and stripes, while others where almost mostly black, and the color they did have was more of a brown.


If I remember too, I'll take some pictures of mine also

[Kreamcheese]

My humidity seems to be pretty normal. Whenever i add in oranges i take out the water crystals. On a side note I finally saw some baby nymphs today. Glad they're finally breeding

[MonsterPyxie]

My humidity seems to be pretty normal. Whenever i add in oranges i take out the water crystals. On a side note I finally saw some baby nymphs today. Glad they're finally breeding

good to hear about the babies. What size is your colony again? and what is the humidity level?

[Kreamcheese]

Humidity last I saw was around 50% and I started with a small number of adults but about 300 large nymphs who are starting to molt into adults. I knew it wasn't be an instant thing because I didn't start with a bunch of adults.

[MonsterPyxie]

Humidity last I saw was around 50% and I started with a small number of adults but about 300 large nymphs who are starting to molt into adults. I knew it wasn't be an instant thing because I didn't start with a bunch of adults.

Well 50% is about normal. I like to keep mine around 60%, its what I have found to work well. who knows...


300 large nymph's is the PERFECT starter colony IMO. Not to low numbers, but not so high that you send a ton of money. And with large nymphs, over adults, you don't have to worry about a bunch dying off due to "old age" or something else.

so while it will take 1-3 months for them to molt and be ready to breed, you will get the most babies, and production due to all of them being good breeding adults!

[Kreamcheese]

Yeah that was the plan. I decided against a ton of adults like you said cause of price and the possibility of them being old as hell

[MonsterPyxie]

I know humidity can screw with there colors..... just can't remember what its called :/

albino roach possible? idk.

[Kreamcheese]

I have a few that have these colors. Males too

[MonsterPyxie]

I have a few that have these colors. Males too

I have had them also. but they never seem to last, or they get there dark colors back.

[JeffreH]

Hypopigmented I think is the word you were looking for Monster = )

I have a few adults that look like that, I'm not really sure what the deal is to be honest. Could be the result of humidity during the molt as mentioned, could be something else. Whats weird is the lack of any yellow pigment, maybe its Axanthic! Can you have an axanthic invert?? lol!

But really, I have no clue. I'd say it will be able to function just fine and make babies still...hopefully. I've only ever witnessed the color change from humidity errors in nymphs, so I've no clue what adults look like a as a result, and your humidity does seem fine. Maybe its a fluke, the one in the second picture is a prime example of an adult female dubia though.

[MonsterPyxie]

Hypopigmented I think is the word you were looking for Monster = )

I have a few adults that look like that, I'm not really sure what the deal is to be honest. Could be the result of humidity during the molt as mentioned, could be something else. Whats weird is the lack of any yellow pigment, maybe its Axanthic! Can you have an axanthic invert?? lol!

But really, I have no clue. I'd say it will be able to function just fine and make babies still...hopefully. I've only ever witnessed the color change from humidity errors in nymphs, so I've no clue what adults look like a as a result, and your humidity does seem fine. Maybe its a fluke, the one in the second picture is a prime example of an adult female dubia though.

time to separate that female, wait for a male to pop up, and start a whole new morph of roach!

Thanks for the info Jeff, your the man!

[Kreamcheese]

I have a male with the same exact colors. Maybe it is just a fluke but who knows.

[Sublime]

All my adults are orange when I received them like your second picture. We'll see with the new bloodline I got from Jeff though if they molt into a different color. Haha everyone is bashing me for buying adults, nah jk. It's cool - next time I'll make sure to get large nymphs. Good to hear that they're breeding for you.

[Badger]

Try to breed the "Axanthic"s and see if it's genetic

[MonsterPyxie]

welp, here's my finding fella's.


Here is a female with BRIGHT orange colors.









Here is a different one with a seemingly unique patter on the head portion. (or prothorax)






Here is a DARK pattern of sorts.







here is a white/albino/Axanthic female







notice her different shape, and the underside of her abdomen seems softer, and thinner, yet wider? kinda odd.


here is a male














enjoy!

(kinda tempted to put the male and female together on there own, in there own tupperware....... HRM!

[JeffreH]

I'm going to ask my friend Kyle about this one, he's a cockroach ascended being... do you guys mind if I use your pictures in the email I'll write him?

[Kreamcheese]

Not at all. If you're able to find out what might be the reasoning for this then please do!

[MonsterPyxie]

I'm going to ask my friend Kyle about this one, he's a cockroach ascended being... do you guys mind if I use your pictures in the email I'll write him?

feel free to use mine.

the male looks like it could just be coming out of molt or something, I will check on them in the morning, and if they are still white, I will remove them and give them there own little home together. It will be a interesting experiment.

[JeffreH]

I appreciate the photos guys, I used them in my email to Kyle and he promptly responded. THE RESULTS ARE IN!

I'm pasting his response to my email regarding the roach coloration and your pictures (the Very Light, The Very Dark, and the "Axanthic" looking adult females).

Kyle from Home - Roach Crossing , unde the username of "Zephyr" , "ZephyrG" and "ZephAmp" on a number of invert related forums wrote:

Message body

"Hello Jeff.
I have watched with a certain amount of amusement many people try to isolate various strains of dubias only for them to give up or the strains prove untrue in the end.
Some of these color differences may be genetic; for example, the dark and more-striped phenotypes appear to fit this mold. However, in the case of extremely orange individuals, the cause is more than likely entirely environmental. As dubias are often kept as feeders, they are also often kept in conditions that are not ideal for development (per say) and more oriented towards collecting nymphs and overall breeding. These tend to be drier than pet roach environments and thus individuals can molt with any number of physical anomalies. I have seen this in other species of Blaberid when crowding has been an issue; there are two sides of thinking involved. The first, which I believe, is that a lack of food, increased dryness, and decreased access to moisture other than ambient humidity causes a physiological defect in roach species that causes them to become hypopigmented. The other school of thought (which very well could be true but would need scientific experimentation) is that overcrowding in roaches causes them to emit pheromones causing effects similar to swarming locusts, signaled by a change in the coloration of the nymphs which can be molted out of. The reason I am inclined to think against this being the case is that it often takes several molts for roach nymphs to stop showing the effects of the coloration alteration.
However, in an argument for the genetic basis of these color changes, I have heard that in Germany they have isolated a light color morph of B. dubia (possibly another species but the news is relatively new), however from the pictures I have seen it does not resemble the orange dubias people have been finding in their colonies in the US.
I hope this helps clarify some things. :P "
-Kyle