Gromphadorhini
Fourth Instar
In my collection there is a culture that we designated as Ergaula sp. Kinabatangan, Borneo, as the material was collected by one of our Russian keepers along the Kinabatangan River, in the east of Kalimantan Island (Borneo), several years ago. These cockroaches differ from the species already present in culture - E. capucina (Brunner von Wattenwyl, 1893) and E. pilosa (Walker, 1868). These are smaller cockroaches, the males of which have an almost solid black (rarely with a small light spot in the middle) color, capable of rapid active flight. Females have a more prominent pronotum and sculpted surface of the first pair of wings. This material is very similar to the photographs (not typical) of the samples presented on the E. pilosa page of the site [http://cockroach.speciesfile.org/Common/basic/Taxa.aspx?TaxonNameID=1177988]. In turn, these samples are not at all similar to what we usually call in culture as E. pilosa. There are two opinions: either the site has not correctly identified the material, or what we have called E. pilosa is not. What are your opinions?
Here's my sample:
Here's my sample:
But that is one possibility at least. As for the hobby "E.pilosa" being misidentified, I'm not sure, does anyone know where the hobby stock came from? It does seem to be a good match for E.pilosa, so I think that ID is correct personally, and this new stock of yours might just be a new species to culture, or a geographical variant of E.pilosa.