Hypopigmentation in cockroaches

Keith said:
Yes to the first two, they occur naturally in the wild, so saying you developed them isn't true, mabye you got a colony going but nature did all the work, and orange Isopods are commonly sold online by many companies.

Here is my orange isopod.

]http://www.projectnoah.org/spottings/2345014/fullscreen
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All varieties and albinos occur naturally in the wild, where do you think they come from? They are already in the genetic code. That's why I chose the word developed over made. There are other orange isopods but the only stock sold by dozens, possibly hundreds, of companies online all came from my line.

 
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That's very awesome! I had a nightmare last night that I went to check on my black portentosas and they had all molted out into normal coloration! I was so sad, haha, just thought I'd share.

 
It totally forgot a 4th invert strain I developed. It's a hypermelanistic form of Acheta domestica bred from normal pet store crickets that also hatches at a lower temperature. They're really neat but I forgot about them because nobody but me cares. I've posted photos a few times on different forums over the years. I think I also was the first or among the first to develop black G. portentosa but it's really easy to do and I don't think much of what's out there came from mine. Lastly, I had the opportunity to develop Panchlora nivea with a black pronotum but I messed up when I isolated the specimen and never saw one again. It came out of a 20-year-old nivea culture, photo here: http://www.roachforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1678&st=0&p=6401&hl=panchlora&fromsearch=1entry6401

 
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When I grow up* Orin, I want to be you! That Panchlora looks extremely cool, it's a shame it didn't work out for you.

*Already an adult, but hey, a girl can dream.

 
I would actually like to know more about them, like how did you manage to isolate that strain? How many generations did you breed before determining that it was a solid, reliable strain? Why do they hatch at a lower temperature? And PICTURES!

 
KitKatie329 said:
I would actually like to know more about them, like how did you manage to isolate that strain? How many generations did you breed before determining that it was a solid, reliable strain? Why do they hatch at a lower temperature? And PICTURES!
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I had been breeding the normal pet store A. domestica for years as a feeder for various other inverts. It had been a small operation that was supplemented by cricket boxes picked up at the local reptile show. Years ago a black specimen showed up in my colony and it only took me some years and many generations to isolate and produce a pure stock. The nymphs are still the usual color for this species, only the adults are black. I have never introduced new blood since that time as that would ruin the cultivar. It's been many years since I've seen a normal adult in this stock. They hatch at a lower temperature simply because that's another feature I selected for. Here are some posts I made about them in 2005 with a photo. Black house crickets

 
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If I'd known about your black crickets earlier I would've cared! Since I'm assuming you don't mind interrogation from interested people, how did you select for lower hatching temps? Just incubate all the eggs at a lower temperature and breed the ones that hatched?

Katie, that sounds very similar to some of my bug nightmares! The rest of the world may never understand what we go through.

 
I believe that cockroaches, dubias at least can be bred for color, I have been doing this for a while and see the results. I'm not sure if environment or food contributes at all to adult color but I doubt it because both of my groups have identical environmental conditions and eat the same thing.

 
Orin McMonigle said:
It totally forgot a 4th invert strain I developed. It's a hypermelanistic form of Acheta domestica bred from normal pet store crickets that also hatches at a lower temperature. They're really neat but I forgot about them because nobody but me cares. I've posted photos a few times on different forums over the years. I think I also was the first or among the first to develop black G. portentosa but it's really easy to do and I don't think much of what's out there came from mine. Lastly, I had the opportunity to develop Panchlora nivea with a black pronotum but I messed up when I isolated the specimen and never saw one again. It came out of a 20-year-old nivea culture, photo here: http://www.roachforum.com/index.php?showtopic=1678&st=0&p=6401&hl=panchlora&fromsearch=1entry6401
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I completely forgot a story related to this. Many years ago where weekly I would buy feeder crickets for reptiles, I once found an adult male cricket with 2 small white eyes, it clearly was blind it never hopped and would walk very slowly. I kept it as a pet for about 2 months until it died of old age. Never saw anything like it again. The eyes were same color as the white eye american cockroach strain. I had a picture somewhere of it, but its from a crappy disposable camera many years ago all you see is a fuzzy brown image.

Edit: can't find my photo, but here is one someone else found.
albinocricket5th.png


 
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Ralph said:
I remember seeing a photo of albino desert locusts in culture in Japan. Albinism should be possible in any pigmented organism.

I wonder if it's more a difference in the hobbyists' opinions/goals or in the animals themselves that's made so many herp morphs and so few in inverts.
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i felt i should clarify that albinism is another name for amelanism. that means that there is no melanin, the brown pigment in humans and other (but not all) animals. Albinism is not possible in any pigmented organism because not all pigmented organisms have melanin. they have not found melanin in spiders for instance.

 
thesavageprojects said:
i felt i should clarify that albinism is another name for amelanism. that means that there is no melanin, the brown pigment in humans and other (but not all) animals. Albinism is not possible in any pigmented organism because not all pigmented organisms have melanin. they have not found melanin in spiders for instance.
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Ok, so what causes fruit flies to now have a wide variety of eye and body colors ( lab raised), normal eye is red they have made white, yellow, and purple. Body is normally tan and now they have orange and yellow.

 
Ralph said:
I remember seeing a photo of albino desert locusts in culture in Japan. Albinism should be possible in any pigmented organism.

I wonder if it's more a difference in the hobbyists' opinions/goals or in the animals themselves that's made so many herp morphs and so few in inverts.
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i felt i should clarify that albinism is another name for amelanism. that means that there is no melanin, the brown pigment in humans and other (but not all) animals. Albinism is not possible in any pigmented organism because not all pigmented organisms have melanin. they have not found melanin in spiders for instance.

leucism is the reduction or absence of all types of pigment. There are also pigmentless cave dwelling inverts that have no pigmented counterpart since color is useless in the dark.

KitKatie329 said:
I would love to see a solid white, large winged species in the hobby. I think it would be absolutely stunning. But don't the same genes that make them albino often cause horrible illness? I have heard that albino creatures don't live as long and tend to be very weak, but I don't know how true that is, I would love it if someone could shed more light on this for me!
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there are a few reasons albino creatures don't live long. being bright white or yellow make it hard to hide and they often end up as food. diurnal animals are at risk since they have no melanin to protect them from uv from the sun.

as for illnesses or weakness, there are a lot of issues with some morphs out there. albinos are sensitive to the sun as said before. in leopard geckos both the enigma and mack super snows grow much slower than normal. in ball pythons "caramel" albinos have spine kinks. in boa the homozygous version of the motley gene is lethal, as is hairless gene in mice, rats, guinea pigs, and chinese crested dogs. this is why i stopped breeding mack snow leopard geckos, it personally didn't seem right to breed an animal weaker than its wild type counterpart. like if we purposely bred down syndrome children just because they're adorable.

 
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