10/1/2021: The magnificence of magnificent emerald roaches
Taking another look into some projects that have been brewing in the background, I’m happy to report that most of my magnificent emerald roaches have been growing and are all at or near maturity!
The last batch of these didn’t do quite as well and unfortunately I eventually found myself with four large females and no males available in any capacity. I entrusted these to Brandon Maines though I’m unsure if he was able to get babies out of them as many people who do have colonies are chronically short on adult males. *Note: I have since confirmed that Brandon’s colony is alive and well so my females were put to good use!
This time around I’ve changed things up substantially; more dog food, more carrots, and bread crumbs! Jokes aside, I have been providing an endless stream of fresh dog food of the standard variety and rotating produce through, though at this point the colony is so ravenous I doubt it would matter what I add. I’ve been keeping the temperature consistently warmer and have switched to strong top ventilation, and this gives me a lot more wiggle room with over watering which can be a major issue during the summer here.
Despite the size difference and general experience, I’ve ventrally sexed most of the colony and have a good number of males. To my surprise and unlike my experience with related Perisphaerinae, it seems the females in a cohort can actually mature before the males without any extra effort on the caretaker’s part, as based on the last ventral abdominal segment it would seem I already have adult females present and waiting for suitors.
I’ve been pretty bummed since losing my *Perisphaerus pygmaeus colony circa late 2016, but finally having a good go with an even mightier species of semi-roly guys has brightened my spirits. I’m at the mercy of male maturity, but if adults pop up in the coming weeks it’s not too farfetched to propose I may have offspring by Christmas and subsequent availability in January.
For those who are looking to culture these species, be aware that there are multiple lines floating around. Unless labeled, most are a cross of two differently colored localities that may be different subspecies or even species. This may provide some hybrid vigor in the case of the former, but it’s important to keep track of labeled versus unlabeled stock in case the distinction solidifies as important in the future. I was fortunate enough to acquire the pure green stock, which originates from Cuc Phuong in Vietnam, and they will subsequently be labeled Pseudoglomeris magnifica “Cuc Phuong” to properly separate them from other stock.
As for all the weird names going around, according to TJ Ombrelle (the current hobby cockroach taxonomy semantics wizard), the proper Latin name for this entity and the roly-poly roach are as listed in the paragraphs above. If you need help committing this and other taxonomies to memory, do give his Perisphaerinae Revision Song a listen. It’s a real hoot.
-Kyle