Help! What is this?

[Awesome Apollo]

I'm a little freaked out and need your help. I have about 15 female dubia that got too big to feed to my babies. I assumed they were all female as someone said that males have wings. So anyway, I have just been feeding them coz I wasn't sure what to do with them. Today I get in there to give them their daily veggies and there is one honking big white thing with wings in there.

Is this a male and what do I do now?

Please help as the dubias give me the willies anyway but will they have babies now? Sure would be nice.

Thanks!!!

 

[pigglett79]

When they molt they are white at first, then they will turn darker. If it has wings it is a male.

Look something like this? http://aqualandpetsplus.com/Bugs, 221.jpg

 

[Awesome Apollo]

Looks like that, yes, thanks. So it's a male, yahoo!
Now babies will come? Do I need to separate 1 female and the dude or will service them all?
I did look up "dubia colony" but it was kinda confusing.
Thanks for your quick reply

 

[Mijah139]

Just keep feeding and hydrating them and babies will show up. The one male can mate with all of the females but it will take a while. If you dont want babies, remove the male ASAP

 

[Awesome Apollo]

Thanks so much for the info.

 

[Awesome Apollo]

One more question- he has wings....will he fly out?

 

[browncofan]

No he will not fly, they can flutter down from things but aren't able to achieve lift off to actually fly.

Sounds like you have some large dubia that may not be sexually mature yet. The males only have wings when they are true adults. The females also have wings but they are very small and stub like. If they have wings they are really adults. You can tell them apart when they are large nymphs ut it is hard to explain and I don't have pictures to show you. Males have a thinner last scale fo their body and the emales are wider. Once they molt for the last time and become an adult it is easy to tell them apart.

In order for the dubia to breed they need to be kept very warm above 85 F.

 

[Awesome Apollo]

Thanks, that was very helpful info, I appreciate it!

 

[kgallego]

My guess is that what you think are females are most likely just nymphs. You'll know when you have adults, they look vastly different than the nymphs.

A good ratio is 1 male to 5-10 females.