@zooophagous this is “Marshmallow.” At first I thought she was freshly molted but it’s been several weeks and she’s still white with dark brown markings (they’ve gotten darker but her white is still bold). Can dubia roaches be leucistic?
Any given animal can be leucistic, and she absolutely looks like she is. I can see some transparent areas of exoskeleton.
VERY cool! I’d say set her aside in another container with a male and plenty of food, see if any babies have the same pattern. That’s a very pretty roach.
I saw them twice when I lived in Florida, and they escaped both times because unlike a lot of roaches they are very very prone to flying, they fly around as much as a moth or something does!
Banana roaches are occasionally kept as pets. They’re not technically native to the U.S, they came in on fruit, but they’re now well-established in Florida, Georgia, and similar areas. We have them now and then in Central Texas. They aren’t considered invasive, and they don’t infest houses, they’re an outdoor-only roach unless they get in and get confused.
If you want to keep some, they’re very easy pets, and fun to watch. Mildly damp enclosure, a layer of leaf litter, a constant supply of cat food and a piece of fruit every few days at least, and you should have happy roaches. Nymphs are brown and flightless, adults are pretty green but very, very flighty. The main problem with them is their escaping due to flying when startled. Open the lid, startle 20 of ‘em, and suddenly they’re everywhere except in the tank.
Fuzzbug! Domino roach nymph, pretty close to shedding into having wings. It’s fuzzy so dirt will stick to it as a disguise. This dummy fell in a bottle trap I put in the enclosure to thin out the pillbugs. Domino roach was put back into enclosure after pic, pillbugs were released outside.
This is one of the pest roaches that’s in my domino roach enclosure. They’re pretty bold, but have their limits. No roaches were harmed in the making of this video, but one was severely unnerved. Yes, that’s a goat skull.
Subtitles and description below the cut.
*a wingless roach is seen sitting on leaf litter, chewing on something. The camera appears to be only a few inches away, behind a pane of glass.*
*camera zooms out, showing more leaf litter nearby and a goat skull next to the roach.*
“Let’s see if I can open the door.”
*terrarium door is unlatched and opened, then camera zooms in again. Roach’s antennae, formerly waving, stop moving.*
“He’s noticed.”
*a finger reaches for the roach, which responds by scuttling away to hide, making a comically loud scuttling noise due to being on leaf litter*
*cackling is heard*
Male domino roach exploring after a rearranging of the enclosure.
Last pic of this guy, I promise, but here’s side-by-side pics of large nymph, newly molted roach, and hardened roach. Same guy, pics scaled to about accurate comparison sizes.
Final result of the peppered roach who had his final molt yesterday. Hardened up his exoskeleton overnight, and here he is!
He had his antennae tucked up for this pic because I’d just picked him up, but about 30 seconds after, he started crawling around on my hands. Still nice and calm, just exploring a bit. Bigger bugs always seem to be much calmer than small ones.
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