Dubia Colors

[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

[Badger]

Buzzkill. I was hoping it would be genetic. Either way, thanks for the info Jeff, and once I finally can get a roach colony I'll keep an eye out for abnormalities.

[Kreamcheese]

Thank you Jeff for contacting kyle. That was great information that he had to say about what may be causing it.