May 2023 Roach Blog

Friday, May 26, 2023: Red & Orange Flat Female Hisser.

Today I decided to get some photos of what I belive is either an already female or sub adult soon to be adult female hisser. This hisser as said in the title has nicely bright orange and red unlike most females this hisser is flat with is possibly because she did not eat last time I fed them which was 2 days ago as of today, this hisser is extremely pretty and even though I don't have photograpghs of the underside of this roach I can assure you of of its prettiness. Only have a few photos of here as of right now but if she is a subadult she is gonna be a monster female and should produce some beutiful nymphs with the colors she has. Where the mesonotums cherry red like colors drastically changes into the fine crisp orange it almost reminds me of my male "cleveland hisser" where this part holds the two black dots she has on her metanotum. These photograpghs does not do her justice when talking about here crispy bright orange color at all. Anyways here are a few photograpghs of her.

Friday, May 19, 2023: The Portentosa Major Male Brothers.

Currently, in my colony some of my males are either sub-adults or just have small male genes and are much smaller than the two larger males that I consider to be the major males of the colony, while the first brother is most definitely but not too sure if I should consider the second male to be one, the first male has some interesting patterning on the end of its abdomen near its vent, while the second brother lacks that and is just a fine crisp yellow and orange color with faint gray markings in between the dots. The second brother has more pronounced horns posting more outwards while the first brother has more straightforward horns. Either way, these two brothers are still the kings of my colony. Here are some nice photographs I have of them.

Photo 1 & 2: Brother two

Photo 3 & 4: Brother one (photo 3 is after a molt)

Friday, May 12, 2023: Elliptorhina Javanica Nymphs! (Halloween Hisser)

Last year in 2022 when I first got my hands on these beauties they bred only within 2 months and had several litters since then they didn't have nymphs until now after around 16 months during that time period a female and a male died and many nymphs matured. there are most likely around 30-40 nymphs that I could see which I moved into my large Gromphadorhina Portentosa colony since the Elliptorhina javanica enclosure is not suit for nymphs and have the potential to escape. Once they mature into wonderful adults I will move them back into the regular Halloween bin. As I still state this is my favorite hisser species because of its amazing colors which are not found in many other hissers.

Something else I've noticed with javanica nymphs is how small they are when compared to portentosa nymphs, this is most likely because they are a part of the dwarf hisser genus and even adults are just smaller in general. Hopefully, I can get this colony reproducing more often and get their husbandry right after giving them less humidity it seemed to help them breed. And there is a possibility my other female may be pregnant. Here are a few photos of the hissers themselves and nymphs, sorry if you find the photos of the nymphs bad my phone camera isn't the best.