Eucorydia sp. “Qin Ling”, the QinLing Flower Roach
Qin Ling Mountains
The Qinling (Chinese: 秦岭) or Qin Mountains, formerly known as the Nanshan ("Southern Mountains"), are a major east–west mountain range in southern Shaanxi Province, China. The mountains mark the divide between the drainage basins of the Yangtze and Yellow River systems, providing a natural boundary between North and South China and support a huge variety of plant and wildlife, some of which is found nowhere else on earth. [Wikipedia]
Location of the Qin Ling Mountains
And this is where this unidentified species hails from and gets its common Chinese name - 秦岭真鳖蠊, which was then converted to English as Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” or the QinLing Flower Roach.
And before any of you starts butchering its name, let me help you with the pronunciation. In Mandarin, “q” doesn't make the /kw/ sound. It makes a very light version of the /ch/ sound. So you could read it as Chin Ling.
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing”
I got 12 nymphs of this species last year, received on the 26th May 2022. And they were the smallest species ever.
1st or 2nd instar Eucorydia sp. “QinLing”
Because they are so small, I have kept them inside a 8x8x8cm [3x3x3 in] cube, with 3 to 4cms [1 to 1.5in] of substrate (cocofiber + peat), topped with leaf litter and a piece of bark.
The bark seems to be a good addition because they always enjoyed to congregate under it, and also made it easy to lift it up and do a quick counting or checking on their size and growth.
I have managed to rear them all successfully without any looses, which I am quite proud of given their small size.
It took them forever to mature.
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” adult female
The first mature individual was a female and she shed her skin on the 4th March 2023, that’s 9 months of development from nymph to adult, 280 days. And most of them haven’t matured yet as I am writing this post. Total mature 4 out of 12.
Unfortunately, no male matured in time to meet this lady…. and to make things worse, another 2 females matured meanwhile.
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” adult female
So I contacted a very good local roach keeper and breeder, as I had seen some of his recent photos showcasing a male.
Dear Orion, if you are reading this, thank you so much for your kind help! Most appreciated!
And he was kind enough to send me his last live male, which he said wouldn’t have much more to live but hopefully could still do the job! Few days after shipping, I got the fantastic male on the mail!
And he didn’t waste anytime and jumped immediately into action!
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” adult male and female courtship
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” adult male and female courtship
This species is quite large compared to other Eucorydia species.
Eucorydia Adult Male comparison (in scale)
To also note that their pattern can sometimes resemble Eucorydia guilinensis, depending on the pattern exhibited by the guilinensis males. Sometimes their patterning can be very reduced/broken.
There are other differences which may not be noticeable from a normal mobile phone photo, but definitely picked up on a proper macro photo.
As shown on the middle individual down below (NOT IN SCALE)
Guilinensis males have small minute white hairs on their tegmina and yellow hairs on the orange patches, while QinLing does not present any hairs whatsoever.
Guilinensis greens are very dull under flash, while QinLing are very vibrant and reflective.
QinLing central pattern is very consistent with the shape of a horizontal hourglass, while guilinensis resembles more a trapezoid band, which sometimes can connect horizontally across.
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” is a new species on the hobby and as far as I am aware haven’t been offered yet to Western hobbyists.
I am hoping that I am be able to breed them successfully this year in order to introduce them to other hobbyists, wish me luck! And for any of you, who would like to have this species in the future, feel free to contact me.
Eucorydia sp. “QinLing” composition
I am totally in love with the size and coloration of this species! Truly a fantastic flower roach species!
This will be everything for today’s collection update, hope you have enjoyed it, thank you for taking the time to read, and let me know if you have any questions or comments.
Feel free to find me and other roach keepers on our Roach Guild Discord Server!
