The Return of Zebra Faced Roaches & New Giant Darklings!

Well, I got yet another package from Kyle of Roachcrossing, this time only a couple species which I can cover in one post! 😂 

Let's start of with a very nice reacquisition, the "Mauritian Zebra-Faced Roach", Anallacta methanoides! 😁 So happy to get this species again, not many people still keep these here in the US, for some reason they just don't do well for everyone. In my experience they do best kept moderately ventilated with very high humidity, whereas Kyle swears by keeping them very dry and well ventilated. Most of the people I know currently having success with this species are keeping them quite humid like I do, so Kyle appears to be the outlier here. But it's something to keep in mind, especially if your usual ambient air humidity is super high, keeping this species drier could work for you.

Anyways, I got my ten or so nymphs and adult female in a half gallon jar that's moderately ventilated, with a thin layer of moist coconut fiber as the substrate. I have vertically slanted bark pieces for hides, and am feeding them dog food and fruits. I'm keeping them quite humid, and at around 75F°.

Here are some pictures of a nymph and the adult female:

Nymph

Adult female

Here's hoping they'll do as well for me as they did last time, would love to make these more commonly available in the US hobby! 🙂

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Now for a species I've never kept before, Kyle sent me some larvae of Eleodes spinipes macrura! E.spinipes contends with E.obscura for the title of largest US Eleodes species, and while the subspecies E.s.ventricosa has been cultured in the hobby for years, E.s.macrura has never been bred to my knowledge. Hopefully I can rear these larvae up successfully, E.spinipes is notorious for being extremely sensitive to excess humidity inside their pupal cells.

I have my 20 or so larvae housed in a container with a couple inches of coconut fiber mixed with sand. I'm keeping half the substrate moist, half humid. I'll offer dog food as their staple diet, and keep them at room temperature (72-74F°).

Here are some pictures of a few larvae:

They're growing pretty fast, most of them have molted once in my care already! They are pretty voracious, hopefully I can rear up some substantial adults!

Anyways, that's gonna be it for this post, thanks for reading everyone, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉