Male domino roach excited- could he be smelling a female?

B

Betta132

Sixth Instar
I have an 18" cube vivarium housing some domino roaches. There's one adult male that I'm aware of, and a bunch of nymphs of mixed sizes, including a female nymph who was quite large when I saw her last. 

I've seen the male exploring fairly often, he comes out a lot in the evenings. This evening, though, he's acting really excited. He's moving fast and flickering his antennae a lot more than usual. I don't think it's distress, he's making no effort to escape, but something is clearly making him excited. 

How good is a male domino roach's sense of smell? Could it be the female nymph has morphed out somewhere and he can smell it? 

 
I spritzed some water in to settle the scent out of the air, and he's calmed down now. There was water available already, so I don't think he was thirsty, I think there was a smell making him excited. Guess I'll just watch and see if a female pops up.

 
Could be that a female has matured, they do spend more time underground than the males do. Could also just be quirky behavior lol! :lol:

 
He hasn't gotten that excited since, but he'll occasionally stand on a high place with his antennae waving, I assume scenting for females. Now and then he'll speed up and walk around quickly for 30 seconds or so afterward. 

I still haven't seen a female, but that doesn't mean much with domino roaches. I did find a thriving colony of springtails in the wet part of the enclosure, and I learned that magnolia leaves buried slightly under the substrate will keep the substrate under them nice and damp for a long time. 

Is there anything I can do to lure domino roaches into one area to see them, maybe an especially tasty food under a piece of wood? 

 
Stanislas has made a graph somewhere apparently showing that nymphs are nocturnal but adults are surface-active during the day. I suspect you have no adult females yet, for this reason. To lure secretive insects in general, offer high-energy food such as fruit, bread, or fish pellets.

Red flashlights are apparently invisible to insects, and they can be made by covering a normal flashlight with red filter paper. Dim normal light also seems to go unnoticed by many insects and only frightens highly alert species.

AlexW, former "guest"

 
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Another roach has come out, but it's a male. I think? It's pretty much identical to the existing one. They met, tapped their antennae against each other, and the slightly larger of the two made a quick bouncing motion while the smaller one hunched down into the leaves, then they went their separate ways. Not sure if that's what the exciting smell was. 

 
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Well, he's doing it again, running around all over the place and climbing up onto high things. The newer, smaller male is asleep in a hiding spot, but the older one is running around trying to climb everything. I wonder if this one is maybe just weird? I'd think if something was wrong, it would be upsetting the other, and this doesn't look like a panicked run. Too much antenna waving. 

 
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