I've been line breeding some of my Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big/Black - 2017 CCR Stock" for high striping on their abdomens, and for as "Vibrant" of coloration as possible for this phenotype, so far it's actually been going quite well! 😁 In only two generations I've managed to completely eliminate any melanistic or minimally patterned adults from popping up in this "Big/Black/Best" colony, and the quality and striping of the adults that have been maturing has been exactly what I'm looking for, with high striping on both males and females.
Absolutely killer coloration, and a return to form for what what this phenotype is classically advertised as looking like. I'll still keep my original, more "wild type" colony going with it's more variable coloration, but it will be nice to have a colony line bred for this consistent, high abdominal striping as well.
Earlier this Summer I received a motley mix of various exotic, WC Tenebs, all of which were either male, or too old/stressed from travel to breed. So, none of these got established, and all but a couple male Pimelia angulata have passed on by now. 😞 Regardless, figured I'd dump these photos here anyways, as they really are quite nice looking beetles.
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| Pimelia angulata |
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| Adesmia cf. monilis |
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| Pimelia arabica |
As you can see, most were quite old and banged up on arrival anyways, so even if I'd had females, establishing cultures of any of these would have been a long shot. But, I'm at least glad I got to see some live, in person.
In more sour news, I was able to get my hands on some of the last Neolaxta mackerrasae in culture, a cute little Australian Perisphaerinae. Unfortunately I believe the colony was infected either with Serratia or perhaps even an entomophagous Trichoderma, as the adults weren't in the best of health, with several having discolored and unusually spotted exoskeletons, and when they died a couple of the adults were completely filled with mold shortly after passing...
Two litters of nymphs were born shortly after the adults arrived, but none of them made it past L2, and just didn't seem healthy from the get go. All nymphs and adults were dead within a month or two of arrival, despite me trying a few different setups and a variety of conditions to try and save them.
While husbandry could be to blame for sure, it seemed too rapid a decline for that IMO, especially considering conditions *should* have been to their liking according to the care information I was given, and it's not as though I'm inexperienced with Perisphaerinae, or "Flat Bark" type roaches in general. So that plus the sickly behavior, unusual exoskeleton spotting on some adults, and the fungal growth so soon after death makes me lean towards them having already been infected with something icky, probably shortly before I even got them.
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| Adult female |
Quite an unfortunate loss, especially considering it seems these are now lost from culture entirely. 😩 But I gave it my best shot, sometimes these projects are just doomed to fail from the start, no matter what you do.
In yet another sad story, I was successful in rearing to adulthood a couple pairs of Epilampra cf. azteca from Belize, which Kyle at Roachcrossing gave me. Unfortunately as both me and him have now learned, this species actually requires a fair bit of ventilation when mature, and doesn't love very wet, stuffy conditions. This is in pretty stark contrast to Epilampra maya, which do prefer pretty wet conditions, and do fine with minimal ventilation.
Unfortunately for my cf. azteca, I kept them just like I keep my E.maya, very damp, and minimally ventilated. So, shortly after maturing, all mine died off, and Kyle also suffered heavy losses in his colony during the Summer due to similar conditions in his enclosure. He thankfully had enough left alive to salvage his colony in time, after figuring out they wanted drier conditions. So at least these aren't lost from culture, just my collection. 😅
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| Adult male |
Oh well, I appreciate getting to have seen some in person, and may get some from Kyle again in the future. They were quite large for Epilampra, with the females being almost twice as large as the largest E.maya I've reared. 👀
After some ups and downs, I am happy to report I have seemingly established a colony of Scutigera coleoptrata "PA", the common House Centipede!
I had acquired some earlier this year, and they bred readily, however the roach enclosure I'd thrown them into became too heavily infested with Alphitobius diaperinus (which are evidently not a good prey item for Scutigera), and my centipede population dwindled down to a few adults, which I tossed into my Gryllus firmus enclosure. I thought they'd eat some of the smaller crickets, and be able to breed in that setup, however after just a couple weeks the adults disappeared completely, no offspring ever popping up, which leads me to believe the Gryllus ate them... 🙃
Thankfully, back in the original, Alphitobius ridden setup (which I was and am still using as a hybrid hisser enclosure), I found around 8 very small immature Scutigera hiding amongst the eggcrate scraps! I moved them out, this time to a proper, dedicated setup just for them; no more attempts at cohabbs with random established colonies of possible prey items. 😅 They are doing much better now, with most of the surviving Scutigera being near mature size, so I expect to find new babies in their enclosure soon.
I've got them housed in a moderately ventilated, 5 gallon gasket bin, with an inch or so of coconut fiber substrate, topped in coco coir chunks and bark chips. On top of this I've got several layers of bark, moss, cardboard rolls and eggcrate hides, this species needs lots of hides and surface area to prevent cannibalism (or at least keep it to a minimum). I'm keeping them pretty humid, and at around 75-80F°. I'm feeding them Compsodes, Nocticola, Tagaloblatta, and Parcoblatta fulvescens.
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| Baby |
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| Medium sized juvenile |
I really love how creepy these things look, and I'm hopeful that now in a more proper enclosure, I'll have a nice long term breeding population established in no time! 😄
In more Princisia vanwaerebeki news, I have created a new locality cross, which I'm currently calling "Tri-breed". These were created by mating a female P.vanwaerebeki "Tiger" to a male P.vanwaerebeki "Big/Black × Androhamana". The results have been interesting, but nothing particularly groundbreaking in terms of coloration. They just look like paler "Androhamana", or rather, darker "Tiger".
The coloration is quite variable, and I am interested to see what the F2 will look like when mature. I've already spotted some F2 babies, so looks like I'll be getting my answer sometime next year. Perhaps if something interesting enough is produced from the F2, I may try line breeding something unique out of this line. Otherwise I'll probably scrap them eventually.
I have taken three females of this line and paired them with a male P.vanwaerebeki "Black & White", to get all four distinct phenotypes of vanwaerebeki in US culture into one animal... it will be interesting to see how that turns out.
My Pseudoglomeris tarsalis colony has been absolutely thriving, these are probably the easiest Pseudoglomeris to keep and breed, period. Got some photos of my colony feeding on some apple that I figured I'd share here. 🙂
Here's hoping to many more years of successfully culturing this species. 😄
Last but not least, I got babies from my Pseudophyllodromidae sp. "Cancun"! They started hatching out in early September, and have been growing pretty well, with only minimal die offs when conditions have gotten too moist. They definitely seem to prefer high air humidity, but hides that are dry to the touch, such as artificial foliage.
Interestingly, the first couple instars are ant mimics, much like the first few instars of Hemithyrsocera palliata. Very frantic and erratic in their movement, and quick to climb upwards when disturbed.
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| L1 nymphs |
Such beautiful and crisp black and white coloration on the nymphs, even at L4 they look much the same as the L1s, however as they get older they will gain some more orange and tan coloration as well, which I'm looking forward to seeing. 😄
Anyways, that does it for this update, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
