Eleodes clavicornis, Arenivaga tonkawa & Chorisoneura texensis Photos

The Eleodes clavicornis pair I got a few months ago have been busy, there are quite a few larva in the cage and the majority of them have been pupating! Surprisingly they have been trying to pupate in the cage they all share, which is unusual for Eleodes, especially considering the substrate is not that deep and periodically dries out.

Of course when they pupate in the dry areas of the cage they die or suffer horrible mismolts, so I've been separating the pre-pupa and putting them in small deli-cups on top of moist coconut fiber. The survival rate has been about 50%, many of the pupa end up "melting" into piles of mush, which is pretty weird, and may be due to limited ventilation. Despite the die offs, I have already reared a few to adulthood, so I should have a nice breeding population soon! :)

Here are some pictures of the larva:

Pre-pupa

I'm glad to be breeding darkling beetles again, those weird, dry-resistant mites that I was dealing with in my Tenebrionid enclosures last year seem to have disappeared and have been replaced with a different, less prolific species of mite that is much less dry resistant and does not really stress out my darklings. :)

---

My Arenivaga tonkawa have been doing good, can't quite tell if any of my females are adults but I think they are, or are at least close. The male looks sub-adult to me, so hopefully he'll mature soon. Anyways, I took some photos of them a couple of days ago, so here they are!

---

My Chorisoneura texensis have been doing very well, and seem to be growing fast! I already have what seem to be pre-sub/sub-adults in the enclosure! I'm hoping within a couple of months I'll have some captive reared adults, the first ones ever recorded!

Here are a few pictures of one of the larger nymphs:

That's gonna do it for today, hope you guys enjoyed, and I will see you all next time!

Balta notulata Pictures

I only ever got one good picture of my Balta notulata nymphs, however I was able to get some much better pictures of the nymphs today and I thought I'd share them with you guys.

These little guys have been doing well for me, and I can't wait until they start maturing.

That's gonna do it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this short post, and I'll see you all next time! :)

Click Beetles & Roaches (Kinda Picture Heavy, Not Sure if That's a Bad Thing or Not...)

So, after checking all my click beetle larva I have a few updates to give.

First off, my 4 Ampedus larva have dwindled down to 3, and one of the remaining larvae has matured! I have put an image up on Bugguide, hopefully the experts there will be able to identify it down to species. 

Here is a picture of the adult:

Also, my Melanotus cf. castanipes larva has matured, and apparently it is probably not M.castanipes, what species it is exactly has yet to be determined. 

Here are some pictures of the adult:

Also, all of my Aeolus livens and A.mellillus adults have died off without laying any eggs, all I have are three wild caught larva, presumably of A.livens.

---

Now to my roach updates!

The biggest and most exciting development in my collection since I have last posted is that my female Paranauphoeta discoidalis has given birth! I've been waiting quite a while for her to give birth, and was beginning to wonder if the male she mated with was too old to fertilize her, (he died a few weeks after she matured). Luckily he was still virile enough for her, and there are now a few babies crawling around in the enclosure. It seems this species has rather small litters, which typically only contain four to six hatchlings according to "For the Love of Cockroaches".

Here are some pictures of the babies:

Really glad these have bred for me, hopefully the female will give birth to more litters soon!

My Blaberus sp. "Venezuela" male has matured, and he is a beauty! My female is not too far behind, I'm pretty sure she is a pre-sub adult. He has a back pronotum spot, though some individuals of this species can have a more reddish pronotum spot.

Here are some pictures of him:

I really like this genus, particularly the smaller, stouter ones like these and B.atropos. Hopefully my female matures soon, would love it if she had an reddish pronotum spot!

Unfortunately, it seems one of my Byrsotria fumigata females has a prolapse, which is when the inner walls of her bowels basically turn inside out and are visible outside her, which is pretty gross sounding and is definitely not a good thing. It usually happens when females try to give birth or defecate, and something goes wrong or is blocking the way. I had a female Gromphadorhina sp. "Hybrid" who prolapsed, it dried up and fell off after a couple of weeks, she is still alive today I believe. Hopefully the same will happen to this Byrsotria, would be a shame if she passed away.

Here are some pictures of her, (viewer discretion is advised):

And now, here are some random photos of a couple of roaches that I have taken in the past few days, not much has changed with them but I wanted to photograph them anyway:

Hemiblabera tenebricosa mating, (A rare sight, these guys are pretty shy!)

Polyphaga saussurei nymphs

Well, that's going to be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I'll see you all next post! :)

New Darkling Beetle, a Motyxia Update & a Small Stenopelmatus Update

A few days ago I was walking down the biking trail in my neighborhood, and I was looking under debris under a willow tree, and under a rock I found a Eleodes sp. darkling beetle. Now there are many species of Eleodes that are quite common here, however this particular species is one I have only seen once before, about an hour's drive away. Unfortunately I lost that one specimen a few minutes after I caught it while pursuing a bull snake, luckily I was able to collect this one with no problems, I am really hoping it is a female as I would love to try and breed it.

I have it housed in a small container with a thin layer of dry coconut fiber and am feeding it dog food, I will set up a proper container for it soon.
Here is a picture of it:

I was thinking E.longicollis, however that species is much more smooth looking, this specimen is pitted and more textured than E.longicollis. It may be E.nigrinus, I'm waiting for one of the experts on Bugguide.net to identify it, hopefully I'll get a species ID eventually.
EDIT: Turns out it is E.nigrinus, ID'd by Andrew Johnston.

BTW, the Eleodes "caudiferus" I've found here in Idaho are actually Eleodes longipilosus, thanks to Andrew Johnston on Bugguide for the info on telling the differences between the two. Apparently E.caudiferus does not range into Idaho, and E.longipilosus is covered in long setae, (hairs), which E.caudiferus lacks.

---

My single surviving Motyxia cf. tiemanni adult from BIC is still doing well, the eggs have not hatched yet, hopefully they will within a few months.
I took a few pictures of her a little while ago, thought I would share them with you guys:

I am really hoping the eggs all hatch, would love to get these established in captivity.

---

My Jerusalem cricket pair is doing well, just wanted to show you guys the male's enclosure inside the female's:

Hopefully the female will fatten up within a week or two, I really want the both of them to be well fed and not hungry when I mate them to prevent any cannibalism. Will keep you all updated on them.

Well that's gonna do it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I will see you all next post! :)

For the Love of Cockroaches!!!

For years I've been hoping that Orin McMonigle, invertebrate hobbyist and author, would make an expansion upon his small booklet, Allpet Roaches. That book has pretty much been the ONLY book devoted to the husbandry of cockroaches, and has long been one of the best sources of information in that hobby.

Orin has been writing large format books in the past few years, many of them expansions of similarly small booklets he had previously published, and ever since he started making those larger books, I have been patiently waiting for him to make a giant roach care book. Well as some of you already know, that day has come, the book For the Love of Cockroaches was published July 5th, and my copy just arrived in the mail today!! It is a 350 page monster of a book, a coffee-table sized cockroach care guide! It is full of pictures, both from the author and from other hobbyists/nature people, myself included! :)

So, I could just show you a picture of the book in my shelf, or against a pretty background, but that would not properly convey just how excited I am to have this baby in my possession. So I'm gonna share an image of me holding the book to show how happy I am right now:

And here is a picture of the book (right) alongside "Centipedes in Captivity" (left), one of his larger works

As you can see, it's pretty thick compared to that other book, due in part to the thicker, higher quality paper, but mostly because it's a big freaking book.

Well, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and if any of you are into Blatticulture, I definitely suggest you go and get a copy of "For the Love of Cockroaches" as soon as possible! ;)