Spotted Pill Cockroach

🔤 Taxonomy

Perisphaerus punctatus Bey-Bienko, 1969 is the accepted scientific name in GBIF and the Cockroach Species File. The sale-list spelling “P. punctuatus” is not the valid species name. “Spotted pill cockroach” and “spotted ball cockroach” refer to the female’s ability to curl into a compact ball when disturbed.

This species is easily confused with other small Perisphaerus in the hobby. Keep locality and breeder-line records; a photograph or trade name alone is not a secure identification.

📌 Description

Females are broad, strongly domed, wingless, and roughly 1.2-1.6 cm long. Adult males are slimmer and winged. The underside of the female has short golden-yellow hairs, one of the characters used in modern identification. Animals collected and observed in southern China have spent much of their time on trunks, branches, and inside bark fissures rather than buried in soil.

The colony is small enough for a planted display, but every stage can exploit narrow seams. Handling should be occasional and over a catch tub: rolled females are robust, whereas small nymphs and winged males are easily lost.

🌍 Distribution

Published material records P. punctatus from China and Vietnam. The type series includes Tam Dao in northern Vietnam and Yunnan in China; later material covers several Vietnamese provinces, and a captive report documents animals collected in Macau. The country-scale map does not imply that the species occurs throughout either country.

Range map

⚖️ Legal status

Checked on 2026-08-22: P. punctatus is absent from the current CITES Appendices and from EU Annexes A-D in Commission Regulation (EU) 2026/1383. No listing was found in Bern Convention Appendices II or III. National import, plant-health, live-invertebrate, and sales rules can still apply.

Buy a traceable captive-bred line, retain the invoice and stated locality, and check border requirements before transport. Never release stock, substrate, or newborn nymphs outdoors.

🤌 Husbandry

A 20 × 20 × 30 cm gasketed enclosure suits a starter group. Provide generous cross-ventilation through fine metal mesh, positive lid latches, and a smooth barrier beneath the rim. The setup should contain more bark surface than open ground.

Parameter	Practical target
Adult size	about 1.2-1.6 cm
Air temperature	22-27 °C; limited warm side 26-28 °C
Humidity	60-75%, with airflow
Substrate	3-5 cm, one portion lightly moist
Structure	upright cork, lichen-free pesticide-free bark, fine twigs
Reproduction	live young; commonly around 8-15 per brood

Quarantine new animals for 60-90 days with dedicated tools. Look for predatory mites, entomopathogenic fungi, malformed molts, and mixed roach species before combining lines.

💡 Lighting

UVB is unnecessary. Use diffuse light for 10-12 hours and preserve shaded cracks. Bright overhead heat dries the exact bark seams used by newborns. If live plants are used, select a lamp for the plants and confirm temperatures beneath the uppermost bark.

🌡 Heating and temperature

Keep the main air volume at 22-27 °C with a cooler retreat around 20-23 °C. A small side-warmed area may reach 26-28 °C. Heat only one wall under thermostat control; do not heat the entire floor or remove the animal’s route to cooler bark.

Growth and birth frequency slow when cool, but permanent high heat is not a substitute for patience. Repeated broods have been observed from females long after a male died, showing that sperm storage is possible; this is not evidence of parthenogenesis.

💧 Humidity and water

Moisten roughly one-third of the substrate and let the exposed surface elsewhere approach dry between light mistings. Maintain humid air around bark without condensation. Persistent wetness, little airflow, and decomposing fruit invite mold and mites; a completely dry enclosure causes poor molts and newborn losses.

Offer droplets on bark after misting or a shallow textured water point. Do not leave an open deep dish for tiny nymphs.

🌿 Enclosure and decoration

Arrange cork rounds and slabs vertically with several crack widths. Add thin branches and a shallow base of leaf soil or fine coir. Secure every slab so a rolled female cannot dislodge it onto a molting animal. Avoid resinous softwood, pesticide-treated bark, and wild lichens unless their collection and contaminant risks are understood.

Service the enclosure inside a large smooth-sided tub. Check door rails, mesh joins, cable ports, and the underside of removable bark before opening the room.

🪳 Feeding

Offer a small dry staple and rotate pollen, bee-pollen substitute, apple, banana, carrot, and squash. Observations of wild and captive animals using tree sap, pollen pellets, fruit, and prepared pellets support a diet with both carbohydrate-rich plant foods and modest protein.

Feed small fresh portions every 1-3 days and remove remains within 24-48 hours. Continuous sweet fruit without pollen or a balanced staple can sustain adults while producing weak growth; excess animal protein fouls the enclosure quickly.

🥚 Breeding

Females retain the ootheca internally and give birth to live nymphs. One documented female moved an ootheca into the brood sac and produced young 27 days later; another brood numbered 12. In site metadata this ovoviviparous process is recorded as “viviparous.”

Keep both sexes if establishing a new line. Do not describe a female-only period as parthenogenesis because long-term sperm storage can produce several later broods. Newborns use fine bark cracks and should remain with the colony unless crowding or disease requires separation.

🩺 Common problems

Failed molts and newborn deaths: usually indicate dry bark refuges, unstable surfaces, or insufficiently fine food.
Stalled reproduction: check ventilation, pollen access, temperature, and disturbance before increasing heat.
Fungal growth or mites: remove wet food, improve cross-flow, and replace the fouled surface layer.
Escapes: fine nymphs pass through ordinary ventilation slots; metal insect mesh and a gasketed lid are essential.
Allergy exposure: frass and shed skins can sensitize keepers. Use gloves, ventilation, and a suitable mask during deep cleaning.

📌 Conclusion

This species suits a keeper who can prioritize bark architecture and seam security over frequent handling. Have a ventilated vertical enclosure ready before purchase; the most avoidable mistake is treating this bark-dwelling pill cockroach like a deep, uniformly damp burrower.