Centurion Porcelain Cockroaches (Gyna centurio)

The first thing you notice about Gyna centurio is the finish. The wings are smooth and glazed, splashed with cream, maroon and soft brown, and they catch the light like a piece of painted porcelain rather than an insect. That glazed look is the whole reason I keep the Centurion Porcelain Cockroach on the shelves, and it is why most people who meet one in person want a group of their own. It is a medium-sized West African species, around 25 to 35mm as an adult, and it is the adults that carry the colour.

Gyna centurio sits in the little family of African porcelain roaches, named for exactly this kind of smooth, ceramic-looking wing. It is a close sibling of the slightly larger, more contrasting Chrome Cockroach (Gyna caffrorum), and if you have kept anything from this group it will feel familiar. The colour only arrives at the final moult, so younger nymphs look plain and dark, and the painted cream-and-maroon pattern develops as each animal reaches adulthood. It is worth the wait.

Because it comes from West Africa, this is a warmth-loving roach. I aim for somewhere between 24 and 30°C, and in a typical UK home that usually means adding a little gentle heat rather than relying on room temperature alone. A low-wattage heat mat on a thermostat, fixed to the side of the enclosure rather than underneath, does the job well and keeps the base from drying out where the nymphs like to sit.

Humidity should stay moderate, roughly 50 to 70%, damp rather than soaking, with decent airflow. Give the colony a good depth of substrate to dig into, because the nymphs and gravid females spend most of their time below the surface. Our flake soil makes a good base, topped with slabs of bark for cover and a generous layer of leaf litter to shelter in and graze on. A handful of magnolia leaf litter holds up well and lasts a long time.

Two things to plan for before they arrive. Adults can climb smooth surfaces and they can fly, so an escape-proof, well-ventilated enclosure with a secure lid is essential rather than optional. Get that right and the rest is easy. Breeding is one of the nicer surprises here: Gyna centurio is ovoviviparous, so the females carry their eggs internally and give birth to live nymphs, with no egg cases to incubate. You simply start noticing tiny young in the substrate, and a settled female can produce up to a couple of hundred over her life in small batches. The adults themselves live only four to five months, so I would start with a group rather than a pair.

Feeding is simple. They take fresh vegetables and fruit, and I offer a protein source such as fish flake or a little dry dog food now and then. Avoid citrus, and scatter food on the surface so the smallest nymphs can reach it. They are peaceful and steady, most active after dark, and a slow but reliable colony builder that sits happily alongside other display roaches like the Cuban Cockroach and the Indian Spotted Cockroach. As a tropical species it cannot establish itself in the British climate, so an escapee is a nuisance to recapture and nothing more.

Every order is captive-bred here, then boxed double-walled around a ventilated tub of damp sphagnum. I post Monday to Thursday by tracked next-day Royal Mail, stand behind it with a live-arrival guarantee, and add a small overcount as standard.