Periplaneta quadrinotata, the four spotted cockroach

25 Mar

Before going to Thailand in December 2022, I did some checking on iNaturalist.org based on the locations I would be staying at, to try to get an idea of the cool roaches I would be able to find.

And to my surprise, one of the coolest looking Periplaneta species (probably one of the most desirable as well) was actually in the same province in where I am normally at, Nakhon Ratchasima.

iNaturalist Periplaneta quadrinotata (Thailand)

It was only 1 hour away drive from my house, in a placed called Sakaerat Biosphere Reserve.

Of course I hit the internet to learn more about this place and see how it would be possible to go there and find the roaches.

I came across (again) with a very nice website called Phuket Nature Tours, which showcases photos of Thailand’s wildlife nationwide. He also showcased photos of Periplaneta quadrinotata from Sakaerat.

I managed to find his contact and sent him (Ian Dugdale) an e-mail, asking for more information on how and where he had found them. He kindly replied that it was at night, and a couple hundred meters away from the station into the forest.

So we (me and my wife) set-out to go there after lunch, explore the area during the afternoon and stay until night fall.

I noticed the birds on the entrance but nothing of it… so we continued driving up until we reached the station.

At the station, we asked how it would be possible to go into the forest at night, to which they replied only with a guide and the minimum cost would be like 12 000 baht (?) for 10 persons (can’t really remember the exact price but it was expensive).

So that was pretty bad news for me…. nevertheless to make the best of the trip, we asked if we could go at that moment into the forest and walk the trails. And they said yes, it was free and we could go up there and stay until just before nightfall 5:30pm. I was going to try my best to find some roaches.

We entered the forest, and it was a pretty thick forest…. it didn’t look like a primary forest but a transition stage between primary and secondary. Going out the trail was pretty hard, so that wasn’t happening. So we stuck to the main trail, and walked for a good 20 minutes… when suddenly I heard some bird calls, just right next to us.

I ushed my wife to stop… and then I took a look into the thick vegetation and I saw there were some big birds just next to us…. And I couldn’t believe it…. they were literally coming out from the vegetation to the main pathway.

There were a couple of males and like 6 or 7 females. The males were so amazing I didn’t take any photos of the females.

Later I researched their names, etc. These are called Siamese Fireback - The Siamese fireback, also known as Diard's fireback, is a fairly large, approximately 80 cm long, pheasant.

Luckily I brought my camera with me.

And the best part was, these birds had no fear from humans!! We spent like 30 minutes just taking photos and videos with the birds and their awesome callings. I totally forgot about the roaches!!

To shorten this story and jump directly to the roaches again… my wife got tired and we called it a day and gave up on the plan to stay until night fall.

Because I didn’t want to give up in finding them, we decided that we would come back at night, another day, and look for them before reaching the station, since it was illegal to go pass it.

Few days before the end of my holidays, we returned. And I ended up finding quite some good amount of side trails before the station.

And in one of them, there it was!