Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have some Dubias and I noticed one of my females had the little sack hanging on her, so I got all excited that I might have some babies (this is my first time attempting to breed). Well, I checked it later that night and it was gone, and I haven't seen the sack on any of my females or anything...
So what happened to it? Is this normal? I thought that when they drop the little eggs start to hatch and the little white roaches are around, but I haven't seen it. Is it possible it got eaten or sucked back into her?

**very confused**

Thanks
_Maverick_
From Texas

They form the egg case outside of their body and then retract it back inside for incubation. When it's time for the babies to hatch, it looks kind of like the mother's rear end is exploding with babies.
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chickabowwow

Phew...thanks! About how long do they hold it? It's been a good week or week and a half.
Do the hissers do the same thing?

The incubation period is temperature-dependent, but it usually takes a few weeks. If you've seen one female doing it, chances are the other females are doing it too, so you might have babies as soon as tomorrow. Just make sure you don't scare or bother the females while they're doing their thing, because they will drop their egg cases and have to start all over again. And yes, hissers do the same thing. It's called oviviparity.
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chickabowwow

Hi,

Here is a info about "false ovoviparity" of Madagascar Giant Hissing Cockroach by Columbus Zoo Education Department.

"The young emerge from an egg case (ootheca) that has been retained inside the body of the female, so it appears as if the insect is giving live birth. This is known as false ovoviparity."

http://www.czda.org/madhiss.htm

http://forums.insecthobbyist.com/reply.php?action=reply&id=17199,17217&catid=10

I witnessed small insects such as common house flys and aphids gave birth to babies. Aphids can give birth ten days after having been born themselves. Nevertheless, witnessing the mother hisser giving birth to babies was something more spectacular to me, mainly due to their sizes and activities of babies (they can even run immediately!).

Good Luck to you and your pet insects!

Takeshi

All the rights reserved by Takeshi Yamada 2006
E-mail: niceguyinny123@aol.com
For more articles about Hissers, please go to http://www.hissingcockroach.50megs.com/tt1.htm
My giant insect taxidermy gaffs are also featured in following website;
http://sideshowworld.com/SSA-15.html

Thanks for that! I haven't heard of that before. I still haven't had any babies yet. I keep a heating pad under half of their area so they have a cool area to go to in case they get hot (flashes?)
In my dubia thing, I only noticed 2 very very tiny babies and I thought they had more than that at a time?

Well, I checked last night and there were babies! Earlier that day, I noticed (while I was checking water/food for them) there were only a few, so I hurried so I wouldn't stress them or anything.
I checked my hissers and one was dead for some reason and I still haven't had any babies from them. Weird.