Selective Breeding Dubias and other Cockroaches?

S

ShaneBOhio

First Instar
I've been breeding dubias for some time as reptile food and noticed that they have some variation in color. I decided to divide the roach tank so that I could separate the ones showing more orange from the darker ones. I fed the darkest individuals to my geckos first and left the orangest ones to breed. I still had a lot of extras so I started to sell them on craigslist and have always sold the darkest ones. After three or four generations I noticed that they had become pretty different looking from one half of the tank to the other. I was just wondering what your thoughts about this might be or if you had heard similar stories. Thanks

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The ones to the left have lots or red/orange color so I'd say your selective breeding is starting to work. The ones on the right are a little odd colored almost a chocolate brown.

What color were the nymphs? Brown, yellow, orange, red?

I'm attempting this as we speak, so far my nymphs vary in color and size greatly.

 
The ones on the right seem to be becoming darker each generation. They are almost a jet black color now. I think they have been getting darker because the orangest ones are removed and put with the other orangest ones for breeding. I also have noticed that the oranger they get the larger they seem to be and the darker they get the smaller they are. You might be able to tell a difference between the females and males in the pictures. The orange group's nymphs are often a flesh color but some are normal and the dark groups nymphs are regular colored brown. I'm hoping that in ten to twenty generations, maybe less, I will have an almost golden orange group of dubias. Also, if you can tell in the picture, the males in the orange group are a golden color.

 
That's interesting, usually I find darker dubia are bigger and orange smaller, that really makes this interesting! The males in that color are not common but they look cool!

 
That is interesting that your darker ones tend to be larger because mine are the opposite. I thought that color must somehow be connected with adult size because they are kept in identical conditions but it could just be that my original oranger ones were large and darker ones were small so they have progressed after several generations. I had a very orange female give birth just the other day so I can't wait to compare her babies to her once they become adults. I've found the males more interesting because the males in my orange group are almost a gold color as you might be able to see in the pictures while the females are orange.

 
Normally females can have orange and yellow striping, some can be near black too. The striping is not as colorful as yours, yours have extra amounts of orange, same as males being gold. In germany they have colonies where nymphs are always yellow, and females are orange or chicolate color, males gold.

I had an orange female mate with a normal male, all but 3 females were black only 3 had yellow stripes, none like their mom!

My brood now had orange female who as a nymph was lemon yellow, with male that had red and orange coloring as a nymph was bright orange and red, so I'm hoping babies will have lots of orange

 
That's cool about the yellow nymphs. I noticed early on that nymph colors don't really mean anything about adult color because when I started seeing nymphs that were different from the rest, I separated them and a lot of them just turned out to be normal looking adults. I've had flesh colored nymphs and kinda a brick colored red with blotches of brown.

 
/monthly_10_2012/post-3013-0-75859000-1350975302_thumb.jpgHeres a picture that I took today of my largest orange female and my smallest black female. The two groups have become more and more separate in terms of color and size but these two almost look like two different species.
 

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That is the orangest dubia I have ever seen! The orange one does look pregnant which will make her bigger but I do see what you mean in size.

 
This is the color difference between some nymphs from one group to another.

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