Are these Dubia roaches?

[Murray of the Deep]

are these the lobster type? i caught them while being bored because the gardener told me to stop catching those hoppers , so i just keep kicking the soil away from where he is and found this little roaches:

there's the pic setup and them are they dubia roach if they are then what kind? i believe its lobster roaches? and also what can i feed them? and also do i have a male and female?

[Heatheranne]

Hmmm, I'm not sure what type they are, but roaches love to eat fresh cut fruit such as oranges, apples, bananas, vegies like carrots and zuchini, Cheerios, cat food, fish food flakes. They can drink the water from the fruits or gel water.

[Heatheranne]

Females are more round/wide and males are longer and when they mature they grow long wings.

[unkempt1]

I'm with Heather... I don't have a clue what they are. I don't think they are lobster or dubia - their rear ends look to be a different color than what you normally see on those species. If you caught them they are probably indigenous to your country. Where do you live? You may want to go to a forum that specializes in pet roaches; I bet someone could tell you there.

Even though we don't know what they are, feeding them fruits and veggies should be a pretty safe bet.

[Heatheranne]

? Maybe JeffreH might know? You could shoot him a PM.

[Wicked frogs]

Those are not dubias they almost look like free roamers.

[Heatheranne]

Germans, maybe?

[Heatheranne]

Those are not dubias they almost look like free roamers.

I think you may be right.

[Murray of the Deep]

I think you may be right.

I live in the philippines and i found them under the soil they dig quite fast and is strong and also do they eat cabbage??

[Heatheranne]

They can eat cabbage, but your frogs shouldn't eat cabbage, so if you're going to use them to feed your frogs, then I wouldn't. Romaine lettuce is fine though. Avoid tomatoes also.

[JeffreH]

Blaptica dubia are endemic to Central and South America - these are some burrowing species from SE Asia.

These also appear to be at least predominantly nymphs... you'll need to get in touch with someone familiar with your local insect fauna. Keep in mind there are some 500 genera of Blattodea ; )

I should also add they they will probably be OK to feed to your herps so long as you are certain they did not come into contact with any chemical pesticides, herbicides, etc in the garden. Poke around at them and handle them some and see if a defensive odor is emitted - if so these are sometimes quite foul to the senses but overall nontoxic and palatability will vary herp to herp.

[Murray of the Deep]

here's a picture of the adult which I got earlier because the 1st pic was all eaten by ants so here i captured another batch and found one adult , now what is that roach? is it a giant burrowing cockroach?or are they beetle roaches?

[Murray of the Deep]

is it a palmetto bug?? will they accept carrots and cabbage? or cooked rice?i want to culture them for my frogs!! will they eat?

[JeffreH]

Give me a little time - I'm going to shoot the photo of the adult off to a friend of mine (Kyle Kandilian). As far as I'm concerned, if he doesn't know what species this is, no one will. He's usually pretty prompt to reply to me, but allow for a couple of days in case he's busy and doesn't have time to tend to his emails.

They will accept all of the above food items that you've mentioned. The term 'palmetto bug' can be applied to roaches but is most often used to describe the pest species (American cockroach, Periplaneta americana).

Cooked rice is fine, along with any other grain product. They should eagerly consume anything that you would otherwise offer to crickets or mealworms as food. Carrots, apples, cabbage, etc are all perfectly fine to feed as a moisture source.

Definitely not a giant burrowing cockroach or a beetle mimic...if it was the prior I'd be paying you to ship it to me LOL ; ) We'll see what Kyle says. Insect taxonomy can be pretty challenging, I work with identifying Tachinidae and various hymenoptera almost daily and to differentiate species it can take a lot of keying out and identification of characters under a dissecting microscope. Thankfully, roaches are a little larger and more dramatic in their individual morphologies, but being a species from the Philippines I cannot guarantee that anyone I know in North America can readily ID it on the spot without references.

[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!