Keith
Megaloblatta
As many of you know with dubia roaches (and a few other species) sometimes we find individuals that are very light or even darker than usual. People are still puzzled by why this occurs, could it be severe inbreeding,genetic, improper diet/housing, or something else? I am currently breeding 2 hypopigmented dubia in an ideal enclosure with proper diet to see if the light coloring is passed on, in hopes to shed light on this puzzling occurance.
I also found this short excerpt online that might further explain this.
I have watched with a certain amount of amusement many people try to isolate various strains of dubias only for them to give up or the strains prove untrue in the end.
Some of these color differences may be genetic; for example, the dark and more-striped phenotypes appear to fit this mold. However, in the case of extremely orange individuals, the cause is more than likely entirely environmental. As dubias are often kept as feeders, they are also often kept in conditions that are not ideal for development (per say) and more oriented towards collecting nymphs and overall breeding. These tend to be drier than pet roach environments and thus individuals can molt with any number of physical anomalies. I have seen this in other species of Blaberid when crowding has been an issue; there are two sides of thinking involved. The first, which I believe, is that a lack of food, increased dryness, and decreased access to moisture other than ambient humidity causes a physiological defect in roach species that causes them to become hypopigmented. The other school of thought (which very well could be true but would need scientific experimentation) is that overcrowding in roaches causes them to emit pheromones causing effects similar to swarming locusts, signaled by a change in the coloration of the nymphs which can be molted out of. The reason I am inclined to think against this being the case is that it often takes several molts for roach nymphs to stop showing the effects of the coloration alteration.
However, in an argument for the genetic basis of these color changes, I have heard that in Germany they have isolated a light color morph of B. dubia (possibly another species but the news is relatively new), however from the pictures I have seen it does not resemble the orange dubias people have been finding in their colonies in the US.
I hope this helps clarify some things.
I also found this short excerpt online that might further explain this.
I have watched with a certain amount of amusement many people try to isolate various strains of dubias only for them to give up or the strains prove untrue in the end.
Some of these color differences may be genetic; for example, the dark and more-striped phenotypes appear to fit this mold. However, in the case of extremely orange individuals, the cause is more than likely entirely environmental. As dubias are often kept as feeders, they are also often kept in conditions that are not ideal for development (per say) and more oriented towards collecting nymphs and overall breeding. These tend to be drier than pet roach environments and thus individuals can molt with any number of physical anomalies. I have seen this in other species of Blaberid when crowding has been an issue; there are two sides of thinking involved. The first, which I believe, is that a lack of food, increased dryness, and decreased access to moisture other than ambient humidity causes a physiological defect in roach species that causes them to become hypopigmented. The other school of thought (which very well could be true but would need scientific experimentation) is that overcrowding in roaches causes them to emit pheromones causing effects similar to swarming locusts, signaled by a change in the coloration of the nymphs which can be molted out of. The reason I am inclined to think against this being the case is that it often takes several molts for roach nymphs to stop showing the effects of the coloration alteration.
However, in an argument for the genetic basis of these color changes, I have heard that in Germany they have isolated a light color morph of B. dubia (possibly another species but the news is relatively new), however from the pictures I have seen it does not resemble the orange dubias people have been finding in their colonies in the US.
I hope this helps clarify some things.
