Completely Stumped
Location: Masai Mara, Kenya
January 9, 2011 10:08 am
Hi Daniel,
I don’t even know what family to start looking in for this one.
I’ve only seen it once. It was long after dark. Taken less than a month ago.
Signature: Zarek
Hi Zarek,
This is some species of Cockroach. Only a few species of Cockroaches infest homes, but they have given a bad reputation to the thousands of benign Cockroaches around the world.
Wow.
Ok. Most cockroaches I’ve seen in the US and in Kenya have always been very drab and plain looking. The patterns on this one are beautiful.
Zarek
What's That Bug? does not endorse extermination
I just remarked to my husband how lovely this cockroach is, and his response was “say what???” (We both lived in Philadelphia, so we know cockroaches for the pests they can be.)
Anyway, since I’m fairly obsessed with photoshop CS3 at the moment, I created my first paintbrush preset of this image. It turned out great! I thought you’d appreciate that. 🙂
And now I’m gonna go willynilly creating WTB brushes.
While we can appreciate your new found appreciation of PhotoShop, please do not send us any digitally transformed images. We must confess that there have been a few times when the insect images we received were so unusual and fantastic that we thought there must have been PhotoShop enhancement at work. We were happy to learn we were wrong.
Oh, no. I’d never do that. 🙂
On the topic of identification, I’m guessing Gyna. As to the species if it’s even been described… dunno.
The similarity of the pronotal markings to Blaberus craniifer is remarkable.
Thanks for the information.
looks like a species of Rhyparobia