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
this species is available in blatticulture and seeing it in the wild definitely made me want to breed some as magnificent as that one! I feel like I’d need a tropical greenhouse to really appreciate the sound of the wings and the *thump* it makes when landing
We call those Jamma roaches in Jamaica. And yeah you can definitely tell when one is about. Loud midrange to low frequency buzz followed by landing impact noise. I hate roaches, so I'm glad I live in the Upper Midwest where they're very few and far between
very nice! gromp mutts were my first ever pet and I haven’t gone a year since six years old without having a blaberid within arm’s reach. still wish I could find them flying around outdoors all the time though…
I was never told the scientific name, so I just called them bar-of-soap roaches whenever the topic came up. It's amazing how much street cred (field station cred?) you can get with a bunch of newbie students when you calmly pick one up & carry it out of the dining hall
