Drymaplaneta semivitta

Housing:

Anything from a gallon jar to a large bin will work, just make sure the lid is airtight, as all life stages climb well and they are very good at squeezing into small spaces!

A thin layer of coconut fiber or a similar substrate can be laid on the bottom of the enclosure, they won't use it much at all though, they prefer to stay on the decor and the sides of the enclosure. Plenty of hides in the form of stacked eggcrates, bark slabs, leaf litter, or corrugated cardboard "roach-huts" should be offered, this species likes a lot of cover, and tight squeezes.

Ventilation should be pretty high, and the humidity should be very low, only a corner of the enclosure should be kept moist, (but you can lightly mist ooths wherever they are in the enclosure once or twice a week to aid in hatching). This species is VERY sensitive to high humidity levels, they will drop like flies if the humidity is too high. If nymphs start dying randomly, 99% of the time, it's due to the humidity being too high. This is easy to remember, as a friend of mine once said, they are DRYmaplaneta after all! 😉


Diet:

Dog/cat/chick food, fruits and veggies work well, nothing special is needed.


Temperature:

Temps from 74-85F° seem to be the best for breeding.
Certain strains, especially those from New Zealand may require a diapause, during late spring and most of summer for those of us in the northern hemisphere.


Breeding/Life cycle:

Adults can live up to 8 months, give or take, and the females lay copious amounts of oothecae, (sometimes females take a couple months to start reproducing, oddly enough). Each oothecae contains around a dozen nymphs, and they take about a month and a half to two months to hatch under favorable conditions. Nymphs take about 5 months to mature, depending on the temperatures they are kept at.

Females of this species seem to actually prefer laying oothecae on eggcrates, especially in between stacked ones. This is in stark contrast to many Blattids, which prefer to lay their ooths on bark or in the substrate, and only oviposit on eggcrates as a last resort.