The Firefly roach, being from South America, is a somewhat convincing mimic of the firefly beetles that live there. This little roach is very quick and unfortunately both young and adults are more than happy to climb smooth-sided containers such as aquariums and critter cages. The only way to guard against all escapes is to tape or hot glue microscreen to holes in an airtight container or to Velcro a screen lid onto an aquarium. A.tesselata is becoming a more commonly kept species. Females have 20-30 babies at a time and keep their eggcases inside their bodies until hatching.
Nymphs are slow growing and can take nine months or more to become adults.
Adults do not fly well and neither adults nor nymphs are capable of climbing up glass which makes them easy to keep inside their home. This is another ovoviparous sp. The nymphs are burrowers and do not climb, on the other hand, the adults love to climb. If there is any crack, they will find it. The Green banana roaches are great little flyers.