I Now Have Three Gromphadorhina oblongonota Strains

I've now got three different stocks of Gromphadorhina oblongonota, one of which I'm sure is pure, the other two, well I'll reserve judgment until I have larger colonies...

First up, the "Philadelphia Zoo" stock. This stock is definitely pure IMO, the morphology and coloration has been very consistent and the lineage tracing places these as uncontaminated. Recently had a lovely major male pop up in my colony, that I had to snap some photos of.

These have been breeding quite well for me, and it definitely seems this species prefers much higher humidity compared to say, G.portentosa.

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I was given the last pair of the "French Giant" strain left in the US hobby by Lucca's Biohub, which I'm really hopeful I can start a colony from. This line came from the French hobby and was marketed as being line bred for larger than average size. Supposedly pure, untainted stock, though the coloration of the adults I received (the female especially) is darker than I'm used to seeing in this species.

Now, I remain skeptical about the validity of line breeding hissers for size, as size is heavily determined by husbandry conditions (especially the amount of space and food given), and so it can be hard to tell whether large size is due to genetics or a less crowded enclosure, which you generally will have when line breeding for anything (at least initially).

Indeed, the pair I received was pretty stunted, the male far from being a major adult. This was likely due to husbandry, and in theory with proper care, any offspring they have should have the potential to reach the "Giant" size this strain supposedly consistently produces... but I personally highly suspect they won't be much larger on average than normal oblongonota stocks.

Here's hoping this pair will produce for me, the female looks nice and plump, so fingers crossed! 🤞

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And lastly, I was sent some adults of Orin McMonigle's stock of G.oblongonota. Orin has always marketed his as "untainted" stock, so in theory they should be pure. I am noticing some coloration differences between these and the other pure oblongonota stocks I've seen, particularly the spotting on the thoracic pads of these females... 

Again I am interested to see a larger sample size before throwing my weight behind a purity assessment, and need to see what the nymphs look like as well.

The adults (the males especially) are enormous, so I do really hope this is a clean line, just with some unique coloration.

Hopefully these will breed for me soon as well!

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉 

Some Darkling, Roach & 'Pod Updates!

This year I was able to successfully rear and pupate two Cryptoglossa variolosa larvae... not a fantastic batch, but hey, better than nothing. The main hurdle has been getting my WC adults to produce offspring regularly, I've tried a variety of sand and clay mixes to trigger oviposition, and am now going with a more organic mix. 🤷

I've been having great luck in general with pupating mature Cryptoglossa and Asbolus larvae by placing them into empty, minimally ventilated deli cups kept within an unventilated shoebox, filled with standing water. This keeps ambient humidity very high, while the surface moisture stays dry, so they won't rot. They'll pupate without substrate so long as the ambient humidity is high enough, and the temps are high enough as well (85F° or higher for best results). After they've eclosed into adults and darkened to a reddish color, I'll usually take them out and throw them into a larger, well ventilated cup with bone dry substrate for a couple weeks, with a moist corner or fruit slices for hydration. 

Using this method I've reared more A.mexicanus to adulthood this year, possibly than in all the years I've kept this species going, so that's great!

Anywho, here are some pics of one of the C.variolosa I reared, teneral and fully darkened. Unfortunately this one came out with a very slight elytral deformity, and there's a small gap down the middle where the elytra would normally be fused. Shouldn't really effect the longevity of the adult with such a small gap IMO.

Teneral

Fully hardened/darkened

Here's hoping I can figure out a more consistent oviposition trigger for this particular species, so I can rear more up consistently. 😄

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My Ellipsidion amplum have been laying lots of ooths, which should probably start hatching here soon. 😁 The larger ooths seem to contain around 40 eggs each, which is crazy, and they don't lay them too infrequently either. Something tells me I will have tons of these guys here soon. 😅

Here's hoping for hatchlings soon! 🤞

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So far so good with my high orange Princisa vanwaerebeki "Tiger" line breeding project, I think I've settled on a final morph name for these; "Bengal". The males and females from this generation are coming out similarly orange as their parents, and I think after one more generation of line breeding they might be ready for release. 😄

Really looking forward to seeing how this project comes along, and am pleased with the results thus far. 😊

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Kyle from Roachcrossing recently sent me a mated, adult female Homalosilpha alba, and she's been doing pretty well in my care. This has been a holy grail genus for me personally, as most members of this genus have strikingly patterned nymphs, and this species is no exception. 😁 All members of this genus are highly flattened, and spend most of their time underneath bark in the wild.

I initially had her in a vertical jar setup, but she seemed to be having trouble traversing that setup, at least with the bark pieces I chose for her. So she's now in a moderately ventilated bin with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks and horizontally stacked, flat bark hides. I'm keeping half or so of the substrate damp, the rest dry, and am aiming for high air humidity but low surface moisture on the bark hides. I'm feeding her dog food and fruits, and have her at around 80-85F°.

The first ooth she laid for me was fairly small and deformed looking, but after increasing the ambient humidity she produced a much healthier, normal looking ooth. Hopefully there will be many more where that came from! 😄

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My first batch of 5 Prionotheca coronata larvae have grown quite large, and must be nearing pupation size now. And the other 25 or so younger larvae produced from a different female have been doing great and are growing quickly as well!

I plan to try and pupate them the same as I've outlined above in this post for Asbolus and Cryptoglossa, as they appear to have very similar rearing habits to say, Asbolus mexicanus larvae so far. I'll probably wait until I see them try to make pupal cells in their current deli cups to properly gauge mature size in this species, before I start throwing them into pupation cups. 

We've surpassed length of some of my more medium adults, as you can see here. So they are probably only a couple molts away from pupation age IMO, at most. But, we shall wait and see! 

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Alan Jeon sent me probably the last Arenivaga investigata "Imperial Dunes" female in culture a couple months back, thankfully she has already been mated, and been busy with laying ooths in my care. Said ooths have started hatching, and I'm confident I'll be able to restart a colony of this locality stock, and hopefully spread them back around in culture once more. 😊

This locality gets larger and more rotund than other investigata lines I keep, and IMO this species probably represents a complex of cryptic species... but that's for people far more learned than me to judge, for now I'm just happy to get these cuties breeding for me again. 😄

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Lastly, but not least, thanks to a trade with Jo Lyn, I have finally acquired a culture of the coveted Cubaris sp. "Crabby"! 😁 You can watch me unbox them here BTW, I've been trying to be a lot more active on YouTube lately, and have been filming and uploading most of my unboxings this past year. 

These are a large, flat, and colorful species with unique morphology, and supposedly aren't too difficult to culture, just rather slow growing/breeding.

I've got mine in a moderately ventilated gallon shoebox, with an inch or so of coco fiber substrate, topped with coco coir chunks, lots of bark and leaf litter. I'm keeping them pretty humid, and at around 75-80F°. For supplemental food, I'm offering them dog food and fish food pellets.

I really love the morphology of this species, and they get quite large for a "Cubaris". I really hope these do well for me, as it's a species I've been eyeing for quite a while. 

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉 

Archimandrita tesselata VS Archimandrita marmorata

In yet another case of an old hobby stock being misidentified for decades, it has been revealed that the common "Archimandrita tesselata" stock that's been in captivity for as long as I can remember is actually, Archimandrita marmorata. 

Whereas the larger, newer Archimandrita stocks from "Cerro Chucanti, Panama" (of which there is a US hobby line and EU hobby line, both collected at different times by different people, but from the same general locality) is actually true Archimandrita tesselata. 

Thanks to Alan Jeon for initially keying these two stocks out by referencing this paper. In addition to A.tesselata being a larger species than A.marmorata, the interocular space (the space between the eyes) is wider in A.marmorata than in A.tesselata. 

The old hobby stock Archimandrita are significantly smaller than the new Panama stocks, and do have a wider interocular space, which clearly keys them out to actually be A.marmorata. 

Whereas the Panama Archimandrita are significantly larger than the old hobby stock, and have a thinner interocular space, thus clearly making them true A.tesselata.

A.tesselata "Cerro Chucanti"

A.marmorata "Old Hobby Stock"

Yet more labels to correct for all us pet roach hobbyists, and I am unfortunately sure there will be much confusion about the two stocks now... but at least we can now confirm we have both of the currently known Archimandrita species in culture now! 😅 And now know how to differentiate them as well.

Anyways, that does it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉