Unknown cockroach species
Hi, Bugman!
I love your site! Fascinating and one of my most frequent references. I wish there were a Bug Guide type site for Central America because that’s where I live and find my little beauties. I did send you one photo of a strange new cockroach, but haven’t heard anything from you. Is this because cockroaches are just too boring (not to me!) or because you can’t find a reference. Because of the transparent shield (part of the oddly shaped pronotum) over the head of the cockroad, the creature reminds me of a space man or astronaut. If you can’t ID it, can you suggest some reference sites on the web? I live in an isolated area and there are no libraries or book stores or universities within at least a day’s travel, so I
depend on the Internet. Thanks for any help. I’m attaching several more photos of this roach just in case the first one got lost.
Mary Thorman
Hi Mary,
Sorry to have been negligent. We can’t even recall seeing your previous images, so they might be in the jumble of letters that is clogging up our in box. Sadly, we cannot recommend any good sources online for your question, nor do we recognize your species. It is difficult enough to identify “flashy” exotic species like butterflies in less traveled parts of the world. Your Cockroach is indeed fascinating. Good luck putting a name to it. Eric Eaton quickly wrote in with this information: ” The cockroach is something in the Blaberinae, maybe even a Blaberus sp, but probably a related genus.”
I like ThisRelated posts:
Unnecessary Slaughter of an American Cockroach or Pondering the Meaning of Life!!!
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This is a mature male Blaptica dubia.I have a colony of theses little ones at home,i use them as feeder cockroaches for my tarantulas.
They are beautiful:)
http://theboardedwindow.wordpress.com/2008/05/02/blaptica-dubia-the-colony/
This is NOT a blaptica dubia male.If you’d like,I can post pictures of some males I have.I am a long time breeder of B.Dubias and they do not look like this roach at all.Not sure what this roach is,but for sure it is not a blaptica dubia.
We would love a photo of Blaptica dubia for our site. Please use our standard submission form: http://www.whatsthatbug.com/ask-whats-that-bug/
My advise would to research information about the species of roaches in your state/country.One way I can tell besides the obvious looks of it that it isnt a B.Dubia is that its climbing a smooth surface….Dubias cannot climb smooth surfaces.Good luck!You have an interesting find there!