gyna lurida

[Leonidas]

Does anybody know about the basic care of Gyna lurida?
thanks

[BugmanPrice]

They are quite easy to keep. I put them on leaf mulch that they love to bury in and spray it with water twice a week. The diet and temperatures are similar to other ‘roach species. They seem to like to munch on their dead cage mates if not fed often enough though. These guys breed very easily having many young and although adults are fast (have a tendency to fly occasionally), they are easy to contain. I strongly recommend this sp. as an edition to any ‘roach collection. Is their any specific information you would like?

[Leonidas]

thank you very much indeed, I have a few more questions. can the leaf much be from sycamore (platanus spp.)?
iv'e got a few "fauna boxes" if you know what these are and they are quite large, 40 cm long 15 cm wide and 15 cm high. Are they adequate for these roaches?Should I put vaseline on one part so they cant escape?
and last quetion, do they need to climb? so should i put some logs and stuff?
thanks

ps-I wouldnt normally ask these questions for any other roach species, but since its one of my favourites i want to be sure i dont do anything wrong

[Pharma]

Hi Leonidas

- Sycamore should work, it isn't toxic. I had accidentally some leaves in my cultures too but they never ate it. Oak leaves seem to be the favorite of all I ever tested for all my roaches. You shouldn't have difficulties to find them in Greece, they're native there whilst sycamore is imported from the USA (I know, the ancient Greeks chopped down whole forests for their armada).
- The fauna box I know has quite large slits in the cover and I can imagine that at least the males could slip through. As long as the box walls are clean the nymphs won't climb up and because the adults can fly quite good (and walk on glass too) there is no reall use for vaseline (OK, I use it too ). Just check that adult ones can't crawl through the slits! I use a larger box because they breed quite fast and because of their flying around it's easier to handle them.
- It's good to have something inside on which the newly molted adults can harden their 'shells' and they like to climb anyway (besides: It looks better with some branchlets inside).

Grüessli
Andreas

P.S. Better ask too much than get in trouble .

[Leonidas]

- Sycamore should work, it isn't toxic. I had accidentally some leaves in my cultures too but they never ate it. Oak leaves seem to be the favorite of all I ever tested for all my roaches. You shouldn't have difficulties to find them in Greece, they're native there whilst sycamore is imported from the USA (I know, the ancient Greeks chopped down whole forests for their armada).

hahaha !!!!that's true!oak trees are abundant in certain areas,but i guess I can go to a mountain and get some leaves.
i really appreciate your help!thanks!

[BugmanPrice]

- The fauna box I know has quite large slits in the cover and I can imagine that at least the males could slip through.

I use those too (well, critter keepers in the US but they look they same from what I can tell online). What I do, is take some fabric, usually an old Tshirt that has past it's prime, and cut out a rectangle so it will drape over the top of the box with 5-6 cm of fabric to spare on all sides. Then I can take the cover and clip it over the fabric and box to keep it secure. I like that method because with species that are not really fast you don't have to worry about the petroleum jelly (maybe you could send some spare off to Pharma ). If you end up keeping a really fast good climbing species like Neostylopyga rhombifolia I use vaseline as well to keep them from making a run for it when I go to feed/clean. Good Luck!