Dipteretrum Adults & Disappointing Hormetica/Cubaris News...

Well, while I stated in my recent post about this species that none of my females seemed close to maturing, either I missed a large female nymph, or they grow super fast, because I now have an adult female Dipteretrum hanstroemi! 😁 

The females of this species are way prettier than I thought, with beautiful red tones on their thoracic segments, with little ornate black markings overlaying the red. They also sport jet black abdomens, and stripey legs. Overall, quite a pretty species as adults! 😍

Here are some pics, both of the adult female alone, and her side by side with a male for comparison:

Adult female

Adult pair

The sexual dimorphism is strong in this species! 😂 Hopefully I'll be seeing babies in there soon!

BTW, I noticed several of the individuals in my colony had issues with their antennae. It's almost like they would lose all strength halfway down their antennae, and so they'd look all bent all the time. No entomophagous fungi or anything growing on them though, and the roaches seem perfectly healthy otherwise. But after doing some research I found that weak/short antennae is a common problem with this species in captivity.

Alan Jeon tells me this is actually humidity related, if humidity is too high they get these antennae problem. I already knew this species liked it quite dry, and mine always hand out in the driest parts of their enclosure. Guess I just need to dry it out more for them, which should be easy. Then hopefully that antennae issue will go away.

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Now to the bad news... it is with a heavy heart that I announce both my Hormetica strumosa females have died, before giving birth to any offspring. 😭 Not quite sure what happened, they just got old and battered looking, and just never gave birth... All that's left is one of my males, who's looking like he'll kick the bucket any day now. This species might require rotten wood substrate to do well in captivity, perhaps more specific temps as well, not sure. In any case, this really sucks, hopefully my few friends in the US who have been breeding this species continue to have success and get them established here in the hobby. 🤞

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Lastly, for some reason I found my sole Cubaris sp. "Surat Thani - Orange Tiger" female and all her mancae dead in their enclosure... I get the feeling they may need dryer or at least more well ventilated conditions than I offered them, and may have been stressed by the mold blooms in their enclosure due to all the new bark I put in there. Additionally, the female may also have been stressed by having two males twice her size in the enclosure with her, perhaps they were constantly trying to mate with her, as a result of her being the only female in that enclosure. 🤷 What a shame, as this was the Cubaris/Nesodillo species I was most excited about having in my collection. Oh well, hopefully I'll get them again one day, at the very least all my other Cubaris/Nesodillo spp. are doing well. 🙂

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉