#blaberus

[rbade-art]

[neechiegeckos]

Gravid female Discoid Roach

[hydrasaura]

I love how everyone calls them angels

i can be your angle................or yuor devil

[crevicedwelling]

cockroach appreciation time!

a big and beautiful Blaberus giganteus seen in Costa Rica. I removed it from someone else’s cabin, and it posed nicely on a palm (after prickling me with its leg spines), then fluttered off into the jungle

a cockroach this size makes an audible thump when landing, a wonderful presence to these beasts

look at those big eyes almost meeting on top of the head!

[wtf-scientific-papers]

Figure 2. Photograph showing relative sizes of the Mini-Whegs N robot and a Blaberus gigantius cockroach

Schroer et al. (2004)

[little-island-writer]

I'd like to introduce everyone to some of my favourite roaches. ♡

1 - Dominio cockroach

Therea petiveriana

2 - Flower cockroach (these also come in sapphire!!)

Eucorydia dasytoides

3 - Emerald cockroach

Pseudoglomeris magnifica

4 - Centurion Porcelain Cockroach

Gyna centurio

5 - Halloween Hissing Cockroach

Elliptorhina javanica

6 - Death's Head Cockroach

Blaberus craniifer

That's all for now. These little guys are so misunderstood, so I hope I have convinced at least one person they can be beautiful. Personally the death's heads are my favourite. I have a small colony of them I'm hoping to grow. ♡

[dystopianroach]

female death’s head cockroach. black caped variant (Blaberus craniifer)

[durianemporium]

Say what you will about cockroaches, but they have some excellent genus names. Blaberus? Blaptica? Gromphadorhina!?! Just wonderful.

[geosesarma]

Blaberus craniifer "Orin" in all her glory, this lovely lady is my first adult to molt out. This specific line of B. craniifer was bred to have consistently patterned pronotums with that jack o' lantern looking face the species is so well known for, they might be my absolute favorite roach

[cinnabarts]

blaberus | mus regis | columbae | mucere

a series of woodcut prints i made a few months ago and only just got to scan

[i-can-even-burn-salad]

20. What's a totally random and useless fact that you know?

Thank you for the ask! From this ask game.

*has to look up english words*

Under the cut for insects XD

The death's head cockroach* lays her eggs, and then retracts them and carries them around in her brood sac until the baby cockroaches are ready to hatch.

*Okok I think that goes for the whole family of Blaberidae, but my school only had blaberus craniifer. Not that I ever saw that, because school biology rooms can kill even cockroaches.

[jonnysinsectcatalogue]

Brazilian Giant Cockroach - Blaberus giganteus

Moving into week two of insect exhibits at the Toronto Zoo, we now come to explore species of a more tropical variety. It will begin with this post and then 2 more to follow over the next few days. And so, behold a Cockroach colony featuring giants among their world! The stature of these Roaches make them among of the largest of their order. For comparison to another tropical specie, a majority of the adult specimens here are around the same length as the Madagascar Hissing Cockroach (reportedly between 5-10cm), while some are even longer and certainly wider. Large as both species are, there are still larger Roaches out there such as those in the genus Megaloblatta (with 'mega' in the name, there's no contest), but today it's all about the Brazilian Giant Cockroaches. Some individuals here are likely to be longer than those I've seen in the ROM's insect exhibits. However, it's hard to judge without a ruler, and more importantly B. giganteus appears more dainty compared to its Madagascar relative, which appears more compact due to the lack of wings. On the subject of wings, the adults in the terrarium are all capable of flight. However, just because they can doesn't mean they have the inclination (it is a small, protected exhibit). Under most conditions, they are reported to be infrequent fliers, only doing so when necessary (for escape and dispersal potentially).

A quick judgment suggests that male Brazilian Giant Roaches are found to be airborne more as females are heavier. Regardless of age, weight or size, sprinting and scurrying is the best option for a Roach, and a flattened body allows an escape beneath a stone, log or into a crack in their environment. Young nymphs learn quickly how fast they can run and the only get better as they molt. I wished I could've glimpsed that among the individuals here, either from an adult or the wingless nymphs. There are many late instars of the latter affixed to their barky decorations, but if you examine closely there are smaller, trilobite-like nymphs hiding about. This begs the question on how many oothecas (egg cases, see the Mantis cases for reference) and fertilized females were and/or are around in this exhibit? Reason being that population dynamics and control are necessary in such a close environment, and once a B. giganteus female is fertilized by a male, she's set for life in terms of offspring! Looking at the undersides of the individuals here, there are likely to be more females in this exhibit (or maybe balanced, hard to tell) than males (males have additional styli appendages at the abdomen's tip), giving them something in common with the next insect I'll be sharing from the Toronto Zoo.

Since the insects belong to the Toronto Zoo, I’ve marked them with the Mantis icon. Pictures were taken August 27, 2023 at the Toronto Zoo with a Google Pixel 4. Please go and visit the animals (insects very much included).

[royaliceblue]

A death's head cockroach (Blaberus craniifer) molting in our roach terrarium.

They're so cool when they've just molted and their exoskeleton hasn't hardened. They become mostly white even though their real color is dark brown.

[weemssapphic]

Believe me.

That's a one time thing.

Then find someone else to handle the body lifting process, because I wasn't going to do that at all.

In my country they live, Blaberus discoidalis.

(It gave me anxiety just looking it up on the internet)

Oh, by the way, it was a small cockroach, and it didn't have time to fly.

Because if I had, I'm leaving the house. 🙃

oh no i just googled that and gagged - the head WHY DOES IT LOOK LIKE THAT

at least it didn't fly!! i'm still sorry you had to deal with that though, roaches are the worst evil imaginable.

totally valid. anytime i see one i'm like hmmm is it time to burn my house down

[crevicedwelling]

some of my Blaberus discoidalis matured! a nice moderately sized roach. both a bit scruffy in the wings due to lower humidity

[little-island-writer]

Aw man. I would have happily written a 100k+ fix about Blaberus craniifer.

Hello tumblr i have a new fun activity for u

Link is here! Any responses would help me out a ton!