Periplaneta ceylonica, the Ceylon Red Devils

Welcome to a quick collection update.

Few days ago, I received another wild caught species.

Unfortunately, the images that the catchers send are always very blurry, and you can’t never make out what it will turn out to be, species, sexing, etc. I just knew I was getting 7 red colored Periplaneta like individuals.

Periplaneta ceylonica adult female

Unfortunately when they arrived I noticed that one adult female wasn’t doing so well and she actually ended up dying few hours later.

So I was left with 6 individuals.

Periplaneta ceylonica

I immediately rehoused them and tried to sex them.

Periplaneta ceylonica enclosure

Normally I like to give my Periplaneta vertical enclosures, but these individuals are pretty mangled up, probably from their catching…. They can’t climb properly…

I have identified 3 adult females, 1 male pre-adult nymph, and 2 (prob) female nymphs.

Periplaneta ceylonica adult female

You can see that the adult females once matured have these half wings, just like a Lucihormetica. I find them really cool looking :)

Periplaneta ceylonica pre-adult male nymph

At first, I didn’t know which species this was, so I decided to ask my Hong Kong roach neighbor Ai Yhen, and he immediately identified it as being Periplaneta ceylonica, given the adult females half wings, coloration and locality.

I also did a search on my own and came up with these results, from same locality Yunnan, China.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/152003681

So now, fingers crossed for a good breeding!

I hope the females are already mated and ready to lay some oothecas! But in case they aren’t, I still have a male coming up, so I hope all will go well.

Periplaneta ceylonica adult female

Love their coloration!

I have decided to name them Ceylon Red Devils!

Thank you so much for stopping by and taking the time to read.

See you on the next one!

Cheers!