Around April 2024, I received a nice group of 20 mixed Eupolyphaga hanae adult females and nymph.

As there were no males, I wasn’t able to identify them until a later stage.

Etymology: This species is named after Ms. Jing-Fei Han, who helped the first author collect the type specimens.

Eupolyphaga hanae adult female with ootheca

Adult female

Pre-Adult Male

Adult female

Pre-Adult Male

This wild caught group came from Laibin, a prefecture-level city in the central part of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region of People’s Republic of China.

Species Distribution: Sichuan, Chongqing, Guizhou

[1] Key to the male of Eupolyphaga species:

11 Pronotum with anterior yellow (Fig. 13 A). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E. sinensis

- Pronotum generally unicolored, reddish brown to brown (Fig. 13 G) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . E. hanae

“This species can be found inside the dry loose earth around old houses, or in the broad-leaved forest; in the forest, they would like to live together in the tree holes, the humus in the holes is a little wet, but is loose enough for them to creep. In Mt. Simianshan, E. hanae were found in a cliff hole, which is difficult to be wetted by the rain, the earth in the hole is wet but loose for E. hanae; plenty individuals of E. hanae were also found under the woodpiles next to a farm house at Mt. Simianshan, the earth under the woodpiles is slightly wet and loose, which is mixed with bits of wood; the house-owner said these roaches were not originally live under her woodpiles, they were brought by the owner from the cliff at the hillside. Mt. Simianshan is wet, but the environment under the cliff is dry, the roaches were found inside the sand; the local people call Eupolyphaga roaches as “turtle bugs”, they catch them and put them in the spirit for medicine use, the house-owner also put E. hanae under her woodpiles to breed them for medicine use.”

Eupolyphaga hanae resembles E.bicolor, and at first sight can almost look the same species.

Both males share an yellow abdomen but they can be distinguished with E.hanae having its pronotum being generally unicolored, reddish brown to brown, tegmina dark brown, irregularly with many small hyaline maculae and orange legs and head.

[2] E.bicolor has almost unicolored tegmina as well as black head and legs.

Eupolyphaga hanae

Eupolyphaga bicolor

You can ready more about Eupolyphaga bicolor here!

A wild Eupolyphaga species appears!

(Back then, when I wrote it, I didn’t know it was Eupolyphaga bicolor, as it was still undescribed)

Enclosure:

I have been keeping them inside a plastic box with several ventilation holes covered by metallic mesh. I would describe the ventilation as a low ventilation, as the substrate doesn’t require to be regularly hydrated.

Dimensions : 23x17x10.5 cm

Husbandry:

I have been keeping them at constant temperature of 25C for almost all year long. Only in winter, I dropped the temperature to 20C.

My main objective is always to replicate the following conditions “the humus in the holes is a little wet, but is loose enough for them to creep.”

I have noticed that it is essential to maintain a dark, humid, loose substrate in order to have the right conditions for oothecas to hatch.

Nymphs and adults would be able to survive in drier conditions, but those wouldn’t be ideal for the oothecas to hatch.

Another issue to pay attention to is over hydration of the substrate. I noticed that oothecas rot easily if the substrate has too much water.

If your enclosure is highly ventilated, the substrate will dry faster, which will make you hydrate it more often, leading to oothecas rotting out. So make sure to strike the balance between ventilation/evaporation/substrate hydration.

Eupolyphaga hanae Adult Female

Eupolyphaga hanae Adult Male

1 year and 3 months later, here is the actual condition of my colony.

Feeding:

Regarding feeding, its the basic. Dry protein pellets (dog, cat, etc), apples, bananas, oranges… And making sure to top up the enclosure with leaf litter once it starts to disappear.

Eupolyphaga hanae adult female

Eupolyphaga hanae adult male

Besides all of those medium sized nymphs, there were many small nymphs showing up. Probably a late 2nd generation hatching out, since I only had one adult generation, and the second just showing up now.

I think at least for this species, I was able to gain a good understanding of their husbandry and quite happy to been able to succeed in their breeding.

Now time to upgrade their enclosure, as how this is going, it wont surely be enough for what’s coming! LOL

Well, this is all for this post!

Hope you have enjoyed!

Thanks for reading, see on the next one!

Cheers!

References:

[1] Lu Qiu & Che, Yan-Li & Zongqing, Wang. (2018). A taxonomic study of Eupolyphaga Chopard, 1929 (Blattodea: Corydiidae: Corydiinae). https://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.4506.1.1

[2] Han W, Qiu L, Zhu J, Wang Z-Q, Che Y-L (2022) Exploring the diversity of Eupolyphaga Chopard, 1929 (Blattodea, Corydioidea): species delimitation based on morphology and molecular analysis. ZooKeys 1120: 67-94. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1120.87483

[3] Han W, Che Y-L, Zhang P-J, Wang Z-Q (2024) New species of Eupolyphaga Chopard, 1929 and Pseudoeupolyphaga Qiu & Che, 2024 (Blattodea, Corydioidea, Corydiinae), with notes on their female genitalia. ZooKeys 1211: 151-191. https://doi.org/10.3897/zookeys.1211.128805

Eupolyphaga hanae

A wild Eupolyphaga species appears!

Keeping Morphna maculata and Morphna dotata