Male Elliptorhina javanica (Halloween Madagascar Hissing Roach) with Deformed Exoskeleton

M

MrCrackerpants

Parcoblatta
One of my male Elliptorhina javanica (Halloween Madagascar Hissing Roach) with a deformed exoskeleton.

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That is the craziest cockroach I have ever seen! He was lucky to molt and not die! I'd call him Picasso :)

 
He really is startlingly stunning. I know it's not good for him, but wow that is a neat mutation!

Do you know if it was a bad molt, or bad genes? I'm having trouble figuring out if he twisted while molting and screwed himself up, or if he didn't form right in the first place.

 
wodesorel said:
He really is startlingly stunning. I know it's not good for him, but wow that is a neat mutation!

Do you know if it was a bad molt, or bad genes? I'm having trouble figuring out if he twisted while molting and screwed himself up, or if he didn't form right in the first place.
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I would assume this is a bad molt. He has fathered many babies so we shall see if it pops up again. So far he is the only one.

 
Wow! I don't know what I was thinking. :) This is NOT one of my Elliptorhina javanica (Halloween Madagascar Hissing Roach) but one of my Elliptorhina chopardi (Dwarf Madagascar Hissing Roach). Sorry about that...

 
UPDATE: None of his offspring have molted this way. It would appear to not be genetic (at this point) but I will see if it occurs in his future generations. I am assuming it was an environmental factor of some sort. :)

 
It's caused by damage. I had a group of hissers like that once (I acquired them from several sources) and tried breeding (siblings to siblings, sons to the mother, daughters to the father) but no odd ones were produced.

 
I was reading it could be genetic, other case was he was bit after molting and healed weird as body tried to repair itself. Fruit flies can get twisted abdomens from genetic mutation and hissers can get it too, so you never know, but the location is what's odd so mabye it is bad molt that healed?

 
Keith said:
I was reading it could be genetic, other case was he was bit after molting and healed weird as body tried to repair itself. Fruit flies can get twisted abdomens from genetic mutation and hissers can get it too, so you never know, but the location is what's odd so mabye it is bad molt that healed?
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Good point. Yes, the location is odd. I have never seen a deformed exoskeleton like this.

 
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I used to buy odd hissers like that whenever people posted them up on the bug forums (I still have my collection in my freezer waiting until I either mount them for display or sell them off). I tried breeding them in several different ways but they only produced normal babies. I would randomly find "twisted" hissers like that in the colonies I used to keep, however they came out of normal hisser groups and eventually shed out "twisted". I am sure they were normal to begin with because I used to separate and search through my nymphs looking at each and every one. I wanted to find those oddities. After several molts, sometimes one would turn out "twisted" like that. That's why I think damage causes that type of deformity. Unfortunately, they only popped up once every several years, I had grand dreams of creating the "twisted hisser" morph. :P But check out this thread of hissers with a similar deformity (I actually acquired the roach on post #16): http://www.roachforu...wtopic=925&st=0 Here is one from Arachnoboards: http://www.arachnobo...ttern-on-Hisser Your roach, MrCrackerpants, seems to have the same type of deformity, just in a different area. Cool!

 
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Acro said:
I used to buy odd hissers like that whenever people posted them up on the bug forums (I still have my collection in my freezer waiting until I either mount them for display or sell them off). I tried breeding them in several different ways but they only produced normal babies. I would randomly find "twisted" hissers like that in the colonies I used to keep, however they came out of normal hisser groups and eventually shed out "twisted". I am sure they were normal to begin with because I used to separate and search through my nymphs looking at each and every one. I wanted to find those oddities. After several molts, sometimes one would turn out "twisted" like that. That's why I think damage causes that type of deformity. Unfortunately, they only popped up once every several years, I had grand dreams of creating the "twisted hisser" morph. :P But check out this thread of hissers with a similar deformity (I actually acquired the roach on post #16): http://www.roachforu...wtopic=925&st=0 Here is one from Arachnoboards: http://www.arachnobo...ttern-on-Hisser Your roach, MrCrackerpants, seems to have the same type of deformity, just in a different area. Cool!
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Wow!! Those are cool. Thanks for sharing. :)

 
It's not exactly common, but it does happen every so often. I think about all those twisted roaches that go unnoticed by people who don't really look at their roach colonies. And I am sure many people cull the ones that look like that. However I think they are amazing and oddly beautiful.

 
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