Are these Dubia roaches?

[JeffreH]

The Roach God has spoken:

"These are either Pycnoscelus surinamensis or P. indicus. The latter is the parent species of the former; P. indicus populations consist of males and females but P. surinamensis is all female. The location suggests there's a strong chance they're either." -Kyle Kandilian

[Murray of the Deep]

The Roach God has spoken:

"These are either Pycnoscelus surinamensis or P. indicus. The latter is the parent species of the former; P. indicus populations consist of males and females but P. surinamensis is all female. The location suggests there's a strong chance they're either." -Kyle Kandilian

thanks a bunch! they are Pycnoscelus surinamensis! and also does it mean that they are different species with all males and female? pretty cool!

[Murray of the Deep]

and also do you mean it can eat live mealworms? or should i kill it?

[JeffreH]

Sorry for the misinterpretation - I was simply saying that anything you would feed TO the mealworms ( fruits, vegetables, etc) can also be fed to the cockroaches. Cockroaches are decomposers by nature and mainly feed on plant matter.

If they are P. surinamensis then they are a parthogenic species. This means that every single one of the cockroaches are female, and have the ability to produce offspring on their own without a male. Makes breeding super easy, because every single adult is a female who can asexually reproduce on her own! Every single offpsring that is produced will be female (thelytoky: thelytokus parthenogensis is the technical name for this phenomena).

A good way to tell if you have one species or the other is to see if babies result from each individual adult. If so, you have all female P. surinamensis. If you have males and females and notice mating or male vs. female genitalia (I can elaborate on this if you'd like) then you have P. indicus.

[Murray of the Deep]

wth they can climb through vaseline petroleum jelly!! i placed a cover and also are they good escape artist and also that's why there are lots of baby down there! cool so will my colony be easy to culture and im having trouble with food! i gave them carrots and they are eating it secretly and 1 died got squished of a carrot! is this normal?and also are they nocturnal?

[Murray of the Deep]

and also my roaches seem to be dying! why are their abdomen cut apart? i even saw mutilated nymph bodies! i caught them all with cut abdomen seems to be weird looks at the pic i posted about the adult roach you will see it cut apart it died today....... and also any tips for breeding them? or setup i only gave them a dying grass and cocopeat 3inches deep. And also will it kill them if i keep on digging on the soil just to check if they are still alive? they are pretty hard to find! any tips will be appreciated thnx!

[JeffreH]

Nocturnal yes, though they will have activity throughout the day every now and then. Unless you have a relatively large colony, you really won't notice an extreme amount of food being eaten. Roaches really don't eat THAT much per insect compared to some other insects. Offer carrots or other fruits/veggies periodically and they will nibble on them as they please. You'll probably find with this species that they will drag their food items underneath the soil substrate to eat - this is perfectly normal in burrowing species such as this.

Their abdomens were probably damaged by the way you collected them. You said you were kicking the soil away to find them...instead, perhaps you may try collecting by hand and being very careful. Contrary to common belief, roaches are not indestructible and some can be downright fragile. Handle with care, and extract them from the soil gently.

The substrate (bedding) you have sounds fine with the cocopeat. These guys are burrowers from my understanding (their morphology suggests the same, along with your description about where they were found). They'll likely remain concealed underneath the soil/cocopeat much of the time. While you may be tempted to dig them up occasionally and check on them, your best bet for success will be to leave them alone as much as possible. Cockroaches by nature are quite shy, and excessive handling or disturbing of them can stress them out and prevent them from breeding.

Most cockroach species we use as feeders can be reared very similarly to one another. Feel free to read over this when you have the time, I made this cockroach rearing guide to answer most basic questions on roach husbandry:
http://www.frogforum.net/food-feeder...r-roaches.html