Polyphaga saussurei (desert cockroach, Uzbekistan) flip and dig Stijn 2017-04-24 | Female desert cockroach (Polyphaga saussurei) on her back. Their inflexible body and the loose sand appear too difficult for the animal to turn herself over. Once helped, she quickly digs into the sand substrate. Normally they do not live in full sand. I keep them on a layer of compost and dead leaves. This species is able to reproduce without males (parthenogenetic), although males do exist.
Polyphaga saussurei nymphs moving synchronous. Stijn 2018-12-26 | These nymphs move synchronous (almost, actually more a wave of movement).
Pseudoglomeris (Corydidarum) magnifica eating Stijn 2018-05-07 | Pseudoglomeris (Corydidarum) magnifica nymph eating bee pollen.
Corydidarum magnifica time lapse Stijn 2018-04-02 | Time lapse (125x speed) of Corydidarum magnifica nymphs during day time.
Schizopilia fissicollis Stijn 2018-01-28 | Schizopilia fissicollis (bark roaches from Mitaraka, French Guiana) in a time lapse to show their activity. If you look well, you can see a freshly molten roach (white).
Schizopilia fissicollis nymph eating Stijn 2018-01-22 | Schizopilia fissicollis nymph (Mitaraka, French Guiana) cockroach eating from bark at night.
Archimandrita tesselata (peppered roach) mating dance Stijn 2017-08-04 | A male Archimandrita tesselata tries to convince a female that he is the perfect partner. His courting consists of increasingly violent shaking, followed by turning his wings up and presenting himself to the female. In this case she shows no interest. In case a copulation follows, the female climbs the exposed back of the male and they become 'connected. Next she turns around and they stay connected with their back for a while.
Dipteretrum hanstroemi cockroaches Stijn 2017-07-26 | Dipteretrum hanstroemi is a small South African cockroach. Adult males have wings, while females and nymphs don't. They live in the leaf substrate. The males come out at night and can fly. Both adults and nymphs can climb smooth surfaces.
Archimandrita tesselata male hissing Stijn 2017-07-21 | Another of my adult male Archimandrita tesselata roaches that hiss when disturbed. It's not described in literature and little known. However, a number of my roaches do actually to his by contracting their abdomen when disturbed. Only the males exhibit this behavior.
Polyphaga saussurei cockroach searching for a male? Stijn 2017-07-10 | Polyphaga saussurei is a sand cockroach species that lives in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaidjan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India in desert like area's. They mainly hide in rodent borrows of buried in the soil during the day to avoid heat. In captivity, only females are known, but in nature winged males exist. In spring and early summer, the males search for females. Most likely, the females in turn come out of their hiding place to be found and fertilized by the males. If no fertilization takes place, this species can reproduce asexually (parthenogenesis). The latter is what takes place in captivity. None the less, I noticed that my female roaches become restless and very active this spring. They started to wander around for hours. Not in search for food or water. So I think they look for a male... Once they start to produce an egg sac (ootheca), this behavior ceases and they return no hidding in the soil. Video is in gray scale, as it was taken at night under red lights.
Therea bernhardti Stijn 2017-07-08 | Indian domino cockroach (Therea bernhardti / Therea petiveriana) lives in dry shrub forest. It's mostly active at dusk and dawn (crepuscular). It's a beetle mimicking species that resembles the predatory beetle Anthia sexguttata. The latter has strong chemical defenses and is a fierce hunter, as such avoided by possible predators. In the nymph stage, Therea bernhardti is a unconspiculously brown animal living a hidden life in leaf litter of the forest.
Polyphaga saussurei towing an ootheca Stijn 2017-07-01 | The desert cockroach Polyphaga saussurei produces an ootheca (eggs case), which is towed around for a few day prior to dropping. After that it takes about 8 months to hatch. The ootheca is produced in summer and overwinters until next spring. These cockroaches originate from Uzbekistan.
Chinese cockroach (Eupolyphaga sinensis) male on his back, flipping over and digging Stijn 2017-04-24 | I places a male chinese cockroach (Eupolyphaga sinensis) on his back on sand. It had a hard time to turn over. Once it manages to do so, it started to dig in the sand.
Chinese cockroach (Eupolyphaga sinensis) female turning over and digging Stijn 2017-04-24 | Female Eupolyphaga sinensis cockroach on her back, turning over and starting to dig.
Polyphaga saussurei day-night activity Stijn 2017-04-07 | Basically this is a test video to see if my algorithm (in Python + opencv) to detect the activity of the cockroaches performs well. Whenever there is activity, it draws circles (and records activity levels). I wanted to know if it's robust for light level changes and activity of small flies. So far it looks good...
Archimandrita tesselata, peppered roach Hissing Stijn 2016-10-23 | Today, I discovered that my Archimandrita tesselata cockroaches do hiss. I was completely surprised that one of my 2 year old males hissed when I touched him. Pretty much the same way as a Madagascar roach does. Apparently, these roaches do hiss, but not very commonly, or I would have heard it before, I assume. Nonetheless I'm surprised that I cannot find many references to this behavior. I did try to make a video of the hissing action. The quality isn't optimal, as only a red light illuminates the enclosure. To improve viewing, I converted it to black/white. The hissing is also quite faint, but nevertheless audible.
7 nights of Polyphaga saussurei activity in a time lapse Stijn 2016-10-09 | Polyphaga saussurei is a sand cockroach species that lives in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaidjan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India in desert like area's. They mainly hide in rodent borrows of buried in the soil during the day to avoid heat. Due to their life style, one rarely sees one active during the day. Therefor I've set up a time lapse camera (raspberry pi + cam) with red lightning to monitor their night time activity. In general, these cockroaches are mostly buried in the sandy soil and once every few days, they come out at night. I've 7 of these in one tank, and as such there is some activity almost every might.
Polyphaga saussurei time lapse Stijn 2016-09-28 | Polyphaga saussurei time lapse. These cockroaches are quite inactive, only at night they have a short window of activity. With this time lapse I can finally see them in action. Unexpectedly a spider has fallen into the terrarium and tries to get out again (to no avail).
Polyphaga saussurei Stijn 2016-09-14 | One of my Polyphaga saussurei cockroaches playing death, flipping over when placed on its back, and showing how fast it can run. In this case it's (likely) a subadult cockroach that hasn't grown to it's full size yet. These hardy cockroaches live in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Azerbaidjan, Afghanistan, Iran, and India in desert like area's. They mainly hide in rodent borrows during the day to avoid heat. The females can reproduce females parthenogenetically (without male). Males do exist, but are not available in the pet trade. These animals live on death leaves, fruit and protein sources as fish and cat food. They cannot climb smooth surfaces, do not fly nor smell. Are low maintenance, live long (4y+) and easy to handle. A recommended pet species!
Hierodula membranacea nymph catching and eating a mosquito Stijn 2015-01-13 | Hierodula membranacea nymph catching and eating a mosquito.
