Parcoblatta molt

Here is a shot of the adult female. Sorry it is not better, the photographing just did not go as well as planned and the lighting was not good. Now that she is an adult, she can also walk on the walls like the males did. I wonder why they can only do this as adults and not nymphs?

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Vulgaris said:
Now that she is an adult, she can also walk on the walls like the males did. I wonder why they can only do this as adults and not nymphs?
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Neato little 'roach! The reason the adults can climb glass and the nymphs can't it because they don't get the aroleum (a little pad between the claws) until they are adults. At least in this genus.

 
So that's it! I figured it had to be something physical like a type of spine or something that did not develop until adulthood

Whats interesting is that wasp queens actually completely loose their ability to walk on glass and plastic after a few months in captivity

 
They might be losing their tarsal pads/claws. Even though most of my adult hissers are missing claws, they don't seem to want to climb glass anyway. Parcoblatta are tricky little things when it comes to wall-scaling!

 
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Ralph said:
Even though most of my adult hissers are missing claws, they don't seem to want to climb glass anyway. Parcoblatta are tricky little things when it comes to wall-scaling!
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Really that's like watching a race to scale a wall between Jackie Chan vs. Steven Seagal; we should cheer an adult hisser who can actually make it up.

 
Here is a photo of their enclosure. Looks a bit dry in the photo, but that's just because it had gone a few days without watering. I misted it later on :)

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Lol. I bite mine! Hey, would fingernails have any nutritional benefit for roaches? The keratin?

 
Dunno all i know is i'm going to attempt to feed dermestids fingernails they are said to eat keratin.

 
You really don't need to try very hard to feed a dermestid larva. They eat just about anything and do not need specific things in their diet.

[SIZE=18pt]ANYWAY[/SIZE], I found this one under a log today. The pointed wing pads have me thinking male, and the ventral shots seem to confirm. What do you roach guys think?

Thanks

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The previous male that I found is growing fast, and is SO much larger than the others. He is definitely a different species, one with black wings. Probably pennsylvanica

He is now a last instar, and feeding on apple in this photo

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Vulgaris said:
The previous male that I found is growing fast, and is SO much larger than the others. He is definitely a different species, one with black wings. Probably pennsylvanicaHe is now a last instar, and feeding on apple in this photo
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My guess is Periplaneta fuliginosa… but I could be wrong. We’ll see when it matures!

 
You know, I thought of a GREAT way to look under the wings without having to wait until it dies or chill it and try to spread them. I have seen so many images of males that fell into water and had their wings perfectly out. Since they don't drown right away and can survive a few min of floating around, I could toss one in a bowl of water and then photograph the area that was previously covered by the wings. I can't wait to try it when this guy matures

I did not know we had that species in PA. I photographed one in NC before though... http://bugguide.net/node/view/353604/bgimage

 
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Not Periplaneta, the cerci are short and erect as opposed to long and at an angle. The hind tarsi look too long on this guy, and the face is flatter.

The water thing might be worth a try.

 
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