Archimandrita tesselata Hissing

stanislas

stanislas

Sixth Instar
Forum Supporter
I discovered that older male Archimandrita tesselata roaches can hiss. I was completely surprised that when I touched one of my 2 year old males, he hissed. Pretty much the same way as a Madagascar roach does (albeit much fainter).
I checked to see if it wasn't through wings scrubbing or something similar. But the abdomen actually contracted much like one can see in the Madagascar roaches. So I did try to make a video of the hissing action. The quality isn't optimal, as only a red light illuminates the enclosure. To improve viewing, I converted it to black/white. The hissing is also quite faint, but nevertheless audible. 

Anyone else observed this? Only one of my males does exhibit this behavior, so I assume it isn't common. 

Hissing Archimandrita tesselate roaches

 
I still haven't made up my mind about what to think of this. Could well be stridulation based. 
I haven't managed to get to abdomen well into view in the video. The animal also made the sound when it didn't had the wings in contact with the abdomen. 
The wings don't move, while the abdomen contracted while making the 'hiss'. Wouldn't one expect the wings to vibrate or move in some sort of way? 
I know it's controversial. And considering that I've only seen it in an older male and then only after several years 'watching the dudes'. So it certainly isn't a common feature. 
I would love to see a video with stridulation sound in cockroaches. Just to compare the 'sound' and the movements made. 

In any case, I'm curious if anyone else had observed this? 
Any idea on how to test for the mechanism? (although I'm not keen on mutilating my animal by taking away the wings). 

 
It does look like he's "exhaling" like a hisser with a little body flex when he's making the noise.  I also don't see any ruffling or vibrating of the wings like you'd expect with stridulation.  That's really interesting!

 
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