new and .. asking for help

[beetles]

Hi all, I have three recently molted female Creobroter pictipennis, I'd love to breed them, but don't have a male. I'm happy to buy a male close to or already adult male, but I'd also be happy to ship one or two of my females to someone, and we could split the oothecae if she mates successfully with your male. Is that a thing that people here do?

 

[agent A]

yes, but I really don't know who has Creobroter pictipennis. I was sent C. gemmatus mislabeled as C. pictipennis.

 

[TheWolven]

Could you send us a picture of your mantises? It would be good if we could make sure you have the right species.

 

[beetles]

I understand, I would actually also appreciate any links to a clear description of the differences. I've also emailed the person I bought them from, since the source culture is likely to be the same species, no matter what. Here are pictures, and thanks for the responses already

 

[beetles]

Could you send us a picture of your mantises? It would be good if we could make sure you have the right species.

Did the pictures come through, any determination?

 

[TheWolven]

Yes it did and it’s now time for our resident Creobroter expert to come through. @agent A

 

[agent A]

hard to tell by the pics but I would say C. gemmatus
I will mention the original description of C. gemmatus has some discrepancies between it and all of the C. gemmatus reared in culture, which indicates we may know something as C. gemmatus that isn't the original C. gemmatus, but there's no species description I could find for C. pictipennis in the literature...

 

[beetles]

hard to tell by the pics but I would say C. gemmatus
I will mention the original description of C. gemmatus has some discrepancies between it and all of the C. gemmatus reared in culture, which indicates we may know something as C. gemmatus that isn't the original C. gemmatus, but there's no species description I could find for C. pictipennis in the literature...

Thanks for the feedback. If you have the time, what body parts are we trying to distinguish? I can focus on them when taking pictures, or puzzle over them myself. Hopefully it's not like some butterflies or fruit flies where you have to dissect out the genitalia, aside from being beyond my ability it would defeat the purpose.

 

[agent A]

Thanks for the feedback. If you have the time, what body parts are we trying to distinguish? I can focus on them when taking pictures, or puzzle over them myself. Hopefully it's not like some butterflies or fruit flies where you have to dissect out the genitalia, aside from being beyond my ability it would defeat the purpose.

the margins of the pronotum, the plica prima, a few things on hindwing veins
genital dissection is usually used on males anyway

 

[hibiscusmile]

lovely pictures