Wednesday, May 10, 2017

Beetles, Isopods & Centipedes Oh My!

So, after a few years, my Coelocnemis have finally been identified as C.californica by Tenebboy on Bugguide, thanks man! 😁 Sadly, I am now down to a single male, I have had him for almost three years now, he is the longest lived beetle I have ever kept!

Took some pictures of him the other day, here he is:





Really love this species, maybe one day I'll go back to where I collected these ones and try getting some females again, I would really like to successfully breed this species in the future!

In other Tenebrionid related news, I dumped the contents of my Eusattus muricatus enclosure out a little while back, to see if all four of my remaining larvae were still alive, and found that one of them had pupated and eclosed into a perfect adult beetle! I was quite surprised, as not only was I not expecting any of them to make it to adulthood, but I definitely did not expect them to pupate in the same enclosure as each other!

The remaining three larvae were still alive and well, so I removed the adult and placed it in my Coelus ciliatus enclosure temporarily while I wait for the remaining three larvae to pupate, as their current enclosure is much more humid than the adult would probably like.

Anyway, here are some pictures of the cutie!:






Hopefully the other three larvae will pupate and eclose soon, really would love to get another generation from this species going! Would also really like to get pictures of the pupa of this species, so I will be checking on them more often in the hopes of catching one as a pupae before it ecloses.

My Porcellio ornatus "South" have actually grown a surprising amount since I received them, they haven't got that much bigger, but they are certainly growing faster than I anticipated! I had them housed in a rather small enclosure before, but have now moved them to a larger enclosure with some bark hides, which I'm sure they'll love.

Here are some pictures I took of them recently:




They don't really like staying still, and the flash on my camera makes them look more reddish than they really are, they are more grey than they appear in these pictures. Really can't wait until these are fully grown, hopefully they'll breed well in their new setup!

Unfortunately, one of my Porcellio silvestrii females died of unknown causes, seemingly while molting, so now I'm down to three females total, and five males. 🙁 One of the females is pretty gravid though, and looks ready to pop soon, so that's good. 🙂

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of them:







That last picture shows off the gravid female, if you look closely you can see her abdomen is yellow and distended quite a bit, a sure sign of a gravid isopod, hopefully I'll be seeing mancae in the enclosure soon!

And lastly for isopod related news, just wanted to report that my Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatian" culture is doing great! (The new morph name was suggested to me by Laura Mae Riepl). I rehoused them to a larger enclosure recently since they had outgrown the little deli cup I had them in before. They are definitely breeding true, I am so thrilled that this morph can be isolated, and that my culture is breeding well!

Here are some pictures I took of them the other day:





Can't wait until this colony gets as big as my other Oniscus culture, it will be quite the sight! 😊

My Scolopendra longipes is doing great, so far it's eaten a superworm pupae and two adult male Hemiblabera tenebricosa! I haven't actually seen it eat anything yet, as it usually does so in the dead of night, all I find are the remains of it's prey. It's gotten even more thick now, and still spends most of it's time underground, so getting pictures is no easy feat.

For example, the other day I went to get some pictures of it, so I dug it up, and it promptly clambered out of the enclosure and ran under my bed, took me a few minutes to recapture it, all the while my mom and sisters were watching in horror... needless to say, I don't think I'll be digging it up anymore!

Here is the one decent picture I was able to snap of it, unfortunately with it's head in the ground:


Such a big and beautiful specimen, I am in love with it! 😁

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this toady, I hope you guys enjoyed, will see you all next post! 🙂

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