My New Blaberus "discoidalis" and Cariblatta lutea!

Here are two of my new roach species, the discoid roaches, Blaberus "discoidalis", and my small yellow roaches, Cariblatta lutea!

I have about a dozen nymphs of the Blaberus "discoidalis", which seems to be a hybrid of B.craniifer and possibly B.fusca. They are in a medium sized container with about two inches of moist coconut fiber as the substrate and some dead leaves on top. They are being fed the usual roach diet, and seem to eat a lot! I would like to see what these guys look like as adults.

Here are a few pictures of some nymphs:

These guys are doing well, and should be easy to raise to adulthood and breed.

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Now let's take a look at my small yellow roaches, Cariblatta lutea.

I started with about 8 or so nymphs of this species, one died the other day and grew mold all over. The others are doing fine. 

They are in a small plastic container with an air tight lid, and small holes poked in the sides. The substrate is a mix of coconut fiber and rotten wood, and I am keeping the enclosure semi-dry. These guys can be picky when it comes to moisture levels, the ootheca especially. They like it dryish, but not too dry. For hides they have dead leaves and a piece of eggcarton. They are eating dog food right now, I will try feeding them some apple later this week.

They are really fast and can climb well, and are very hard to get pictures of. I was able to get a few half decent pictures of one individual, here they are (FYI, it is missing one cerci):

Hopefully I will be successful with this species, they are very good looking and have very intricate markings on their bodies.

Well I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and in case I don't do a blog post by then, I hope you all have a happy new year! :)

Pterostichus Larva Update

Hi guys, I hope you had a very merry Christmas! :)

I am down to ten of my Pterostichus cf. melanarius larva, hopefully I can rear them all to adulthood. They are somewhat hardy, they can go about three to four days without fresh food, and without opening their cages. Otherwise they either starve or suffocate. They are still doing well on pre-killed mealworms.

Apparently most Carabids have three instars, so the first larva I posted a picture of was still a L1, not L3.

Here are some pictures of a large L2 (none of my larva have reached L3 yet):

Here is a close up of the rear end of the larva

I hope you guys enjoyed this post, I am very excited about these guys and I really hope I can get them to adulthood and maybe get a second, completely captive bred generation going! See you guys next post! :)

My New Pycnoscelus Species!

Here are my new Pycnoscelus species, P.femapterus and P.nigra.

I have about four of the shadow roaches, Pycnoscelus nigra, which is a small amount of roaches to start a colony with, too small for some species. Luckily this species is parthenogenic, just like P.surinamensis, so you only need one to reach adulthood to start a whole colony. This species is pretty easy to care for, so I think they should all reach adulthood with no problems.

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with coconut fiber as the substrate and some dead leaves on top. It seems that this whole genus likes to burrow, so they do not need much in the way of decor, just a fairly deep substrate to burrow in. I will be feeding them dog/cat food, fruits and veggies. These guys will eat just about anything.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Can't wait until these guys mature, the adults are a nice black color, with reddish brown legs.

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I have about 18 or so of the wingless female roach, Pycnoscelus femapterus. These guys are not parthenogenic, males and females are present. The males look like a smaller, thinner version of a Surinam roach. Females are wingless, and basically look like nymphs, unlike the winged males. They are being kept the same as the P.nigra.

Here are some pictures, I was not able to get pics of the males, they are very skittish.

Nymphs or adult females

These guys are supposed to be quite prolific, so I expect to see babies soon.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I wish you all happy holidays! :)

My New Byrsotria Species!

This post is about my two new species of Byrsotria, Byrsotria sp. "Cuba", and Byrsotria fumigata. 

I have about twenty of the Byrsotria sp. "Cuba", three adult females, one adult male, and the rest are nymphs. They are in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate and lots of dead leaves for extra food/hides. They are a burrowing species, and they can't climb smooth surfaces. They eat the usual roach fare of dog/cat food, fruits and veggies.

They are decent for handling, though they seem to be a little on the skittish side. Here are some pictures of some adults.

Female

Male

They should be easy to breed, and seeing as I have adults of both sexes, I expect to see some tiny babies soon!

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Now let's take a look at my Byrsotria fumigata. I only have two adult females and one small unsexed nymph which I really hope is a male. These guys are also burrowers and they have a nice deep substrate of coconut fiber and some dead leaves on top. They are eating the same food as the Byrsotria sp. "Cuba".

Here are some pictures of one of the adult females, she has a few bites taken out of her wings it would seem.

Hopefully the small nymph is a male, I would really like to breed this species!

Oh well, that's gonna be it for today. I hope you guys enjoyed this post! :)

My New Blaberus atropos "Florida" and Chorisoneura texensis.

So, lets talk about a couple of my new roach species, my polymorphic roaches, Blaberus atropos "Florida", and my small yellow Texas roaches, Chorisoneura texensis.

This is my first time keeping any of the Blaberus species and I must say, I am a fan! At first I thought this genus was a bit overrated, they did not look too interesting to me so I never got around to buying any. Now that I have them, I love them! They are just so big and passive, and are great for handling! I am really glad I got some of these. 

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate and a layer of dead leaves on top just because. They are burrowers, so I gave them a deep substrate and no hides. I am feeding them cat food, fruits and veggies, the usual roach fare.

This species in particular is one of the more interesting species, seeing as they have variable pronotum markings in different individuals. Here are some pictures of two individuals with different pronotum markings. Both are female.

The more circular marking

And the typical Blaberus square

And here are both of them together

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And now lets talk about my Chorisoneura texensis. This species is extremely hard to breed, even Kyle Kandillian and Alan Jeon, two of the most experienced Blatticulturists out there, have not been able to breed them successfully, so I expect not to do well with them. However if everyone gave up on something when other people had failed, then nothing would get done. I am going to try my best to rear these, and even if I fail, hopefully we will have learned something new that can help the next person who tries to keep them.

In a personal conversation, Alan Jeon said that these guys were better kept separate, because it seems like the nymphs like to nibble on each others antenna. I have six nymphs, so I am keeping three of them in separate deli cups, and three together in a medium sized container with plenty of hides and will compare the growth and overall health of both groups. If one does better than the other, I will move the other group into the appropriate setup(s).

I am keeping them moist, the substrate is coconut fiber mixed with a little sawdust, and I am using dead leaves and bits of cardboard eggcartons and toilet paper rolls as hides. I am feeding them cat food, so far it is hard to tell if they are eating because they are just so small, and probably have small appetites.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Hopefully I can successfully breed them, it would be quite a surprise if I did. The Blaberus on the other hand are relatively easy to breed, and I should have no problem breeding them, just got to wait for some of my small nymphs to grow up, all the large nymphs and adults are females.

Hope you guys enjoyed, and I will see you next time! :)

Christmas Roach Overdose!!!

Guys, I think I died and went to roach heaven. I just got a big lot of roaches from Nathaniel Long, (Happy1892 on roachforum, owner of this blog), and let me tell you, my number of roach species has doubled! Thank you Nathaniel! :)

Here are all my new species:

Blaberus atropos
Blaberus "discoidalis" (Probably hybrids, few people have true discoidalis)
Byrsotria fumigata
Byrsotria sp. "Cuba"
Cariblatta lutea
Chorisoneura texensis
Parcoblatta bolliana
Parcoblatta divisa
Parcoblatta lata
Parcoblatta uhleriana
Parcoblatta virginica
Parcoblatta unknown fulvescens like caudelli
Pycnoscelus femapterus
Pycnoscelus nigra

As you can see, I got a lot of new mouths to feed! This will be my first time keeping any of the Blaberus species, which are some of the most commonly kept roaches out there. This is also my first time keeping some of the small Ectobiids, (C.lutea and C.texensis), which can be quite tricky to breed I hear, (though Nathaniel says the C.lutea are almost easier to breed than Parcoblatta).

I will be doing separate posts on my new roaches over the next few weeks, so prepare for lots of roachy blog posts!! :)

Well I hope you guys enjoyed, will see you soon!

My New Tenebrio cf. obscurus, Plus Some Awesome News!

Last post I talked about the new beetles I got while cleaning up old corn from a barn, here are the Tenebrio cf. obscurus.

I am excited about these, males have enlarged front legs which is an unusual feature, and the larva are much more dark colored than the yellow mealworms, Tenebrio molitor.

I have them in a small cream cheese container for right now, I will give them a bigger enclosure soon. The substrate is dry coconut fiber and I will be feeding them the usual darkling beetle diet of dog food, fruits and veggies.

Here are some pictures of the cuties!

Hopefully I can rear this species and breed the adults, they do not seem to be too common in the hobby.

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Now on an unrelated note, a few months ago I submitted an article to Invertebrates Magazine on my experiences keeping the Pennsylvania dingy beetle, Harpalus pensylvanicus. It was accepted, and was just released in this month's issue!! (I.M, Vol 15, Issue 1). If you love bugs and love reading about them, I definitely recommend  Invertebrates Magazine, it is the only Magazine out there about culturing invertebrates, and is very interesting!

Anyways, hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you next time! :)