Bringing Back Eurycotis sp. "Venezuela"!

Nicoluc Shipment Pt 5/6

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After a several year absence, I'm happy to report Eurycotis sp. "Venezuela" are back in the US hobby! 😁 This stock hails specifically from Isla de Margarita, and despite having been in culture for quite a while, has yet to get an ID beyond genus. Whatever they are, it's a slightly unforgiving species as far as I'm aware, and since they're small and not that colorful, a lack of interest pretty much killed them off here in the US years ago at one of the hobby low points... However, since interest in new roaches has picked up again here, these should hopefully stick around in the US hobby for years to come. 😁

This is the smallest hobby Eurycotis, and they seem to like it drier than a lot of the other Eurycotis species in culture. I've been told to keep only a small area of the enclosure humid, the rest dry. Other than that, offering plenty of hides, heat and good ventilation seems to be the way to go for this species. 

I've got my 15 or so individuals in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. For hides I'm using paper towel rolls, bark, eggcrate and leaf litter, and I'm keeping one third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry. I've been keeping them at 75-80F°, and am offering dog food and fruits as the staple diet. They really seem to love banana, though they've also eaten a fair bit of the apples and dog food I've offered them too.

Here are some pictures of an adult female:

Interestingly, these produce quite an odd defensive odor when disturbed, smells very chemically strong. Not the normal almond-cherry smell people say E.floridana produce.

Hopefully these will breed well for me, and I can get them established in the US hobby once more. The females have already started laying ooths for me, so that's a good start! 😁

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BTW, while we're on the topic of Eurycotis, I do have some sad news regarding my Eurycotis opaca "Jaruco". Sadly, of the four nymphs I had, two have died, one male and one female. One large female nymph has matured months ago and has been thriving for me, but I have no mate for her... I have one small male nymph but he has stopped growing, looks pretty skinny and isn't eating much, so I suspect he's on his way out for whatever reason... Definitely a challenging species, and apparently after asking others for care advice, it would appear random nymph die offs aren't too uncommon with this species. 😐 So, I'll probably end up having to get more this spring. Oh well, can't be helped I guess, at least my one adult female is doing very well. I think this species actually likes it very humid and somewhat stuffy, and they don't seem to be huge fans of high heat either.

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