Re-housings, Setup Changes, & a Drymaplaneta Ootheca!

Hey guys, it's been a while since I last posted, it's been quite hectic over here, so I haven't had as much time as I usually do to blog and stuff. There have been a few developments in my collection since I last posted, so let's discuss some of them! 🙂

First of all, I have rehoused my Arenivaga floridensis "White" to a slightly larger enclosure than they were in, due to a bit of antennae nipping with my adult males. Hopefully now that they are in a slightly larger container, the antennae nipping will stop. My two largest female nymphs look like they are subadults now, which is great, hopefully they'll mature soon, there are certainly a lot of adult males in there for them to mate with!

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The other day I checked up on my Drymaplaneta semivitta enclosure, and found that there was a small oothecae that had been laid on one of the eggcartons in the enclosure! 😮 Unfortunately the ooth is very small, so I personally doubt it's fertile, but after discussing with Kyle Kandilian for a bit, he said that the oothecae may be a "practice ooth", that the females lay before really cranking more oothecae out, so maybe many more ooths will follow!

Here are some pictures of the oothecae, (sorry for the poor lighting):

He also suggested that I feed baby food to them, as this sometimes helps roaches in dire situations that need urgent care, (how exactly, I have no clue), so I got some Pumpkin Banana baby food the other day and am going to be feeding it to my Drymaplaneta for a while, to see if it helps them breed or not.

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My Lucihormetica grossei and subcincta refuse to give birth for some reason, I asked around and apparently I'm not the only one having this problem with Lucihormetica at the moment. I've rehoused my L.subcincta to a larger enclosure and added an inch or two of more substrate, as well as more dead leaves on top, and I added a few more inches of substrate to my L.grossei setup too, since the substrate in their cage was a little shallow. I also added some more ventilation to both containers. Hopefully this will help get them to breed, we will see!

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Unfortunately, my Panchlora sp. "White" adult female seems to be getting old and may die off soon, and she STILL has not given me any offspring! 😩 I have taken her and the last adult male from the main enclosure and put them in a 24 oz plastic container with an inch or so of fresh coconut fiber, with bark pieces for hides. I am keeping the enclosure moist, and will feed them as normal, (chick feed and fruits). This comes after advice from Kyle, he said that he sometimes moves species that aren't doing particularly well for him to smaller enclosures, it's a trick he uses that apparently works well to help some finicky species breed better, (again, how exactly, I'm not sure).

I also dug around the main enclosure to see what other individuals I have left, and I found one very freshly molted adult female, a subadult female, and two subadult males. I have also rehoused them all to a 24 oz container, with fresh coconut fiber and bark pieces and dead leaves for hides, just to be on the safe side. I may actually split them up later and put each pair in their own containers.

Hopefully these changes will help to get these guys breeding properly, this species is so fussy compared to the other Panchlora in the hobby!

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Lastly, I have some Pyrophorus noctilucus news! My adult female(s?) have produced a lot of larvae so far, more than I anticipated, which is great! 😁 Some of the larvae are starting to reach a good size now, and by good size, I mean about 5 mm long! So I have started separating larvae that are either close to the surface or right under the bark hides in the enclosure. So far I have separated three, as I am now out of empty, small deli cups lol! I will be buying more this week, so that I can separate more larvae, before they start developing their predatory tendencies...

Also, I rehoused that large larvae I was talking about recently, though I may actually have to rehouse it again, since it's current enclosure might be too shallow... Anyway, I took some pictures of it as I was setting up it's new enclosure, I even got a couple side by side pictures of it next to some mature Tenebrio molitor larvae for a size comparison!

Here are those pictures:

Now Kiss!!!

I can't wait to see just how big these larvae will get, and I am so happy that the little larvae my adults produced are doing well! 😊

Well, that's going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

The "For Sale" Page is Back!

As some of you may know, my family was in the process of moving, trying to find a new place, and so I've had to put a halt on both buying and selling bugs lately. Well, my move got postponed, (to when exactly, has yet to be determined), so I'm able to start selling bugs again! 🙂 (Haven't gotten the "all clear" to start taking in any new invertebrates yet though, as things are still a little uncertain).

So, the For Sale page is back up now, (with an updated TOS section), and I've got some cool stuff up for sale, including a few rare species I only have a few groups of, so get 'em while you can! 😉

Well that's all I've got to say for today, nothing particularly exciting has gone on in my collection as of late. Will see you all next time!

More Roach & Pyrophorus Updates (A Rather Long Post)

First of all, both my Deropeltis sp. "Jinka", and Eurycotis improcera have started to lay oothecae! 😁 The Deropeltis ooths are really large, and very well hidden in the grooves of their bark hides, the Eurycotis ooths are smaller, and they didn't do as good of a job at making the oothecae hard to find. I am so glad that these two species have started laying oothecae for me, hopefully they all hatch out with no problems!

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My Anallacta methanoides nymphs are doing very well, and growing nicely! 🙂 The nymphs are really starting to darken up now, and they are looking very beautiful!

Here are some pictures of them:

I really can't wait until they start maturing! 😊

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Well guys, I did it. I freaking did it! I FINALLY got not one, but several Arenivaga tonkawa males to mature without dying first! 😆 Most of the nymphs Kyle sent me ended up being males actually, which is a little unlucky, but thankfully there is at least one female in the bunch, and she just matured as well, so it looks like I'll be getting offspring from them soon!

I think the key to my success this time around is that I put them in a much smaller container than I previously tried keeping my two pairs in, it is well known that many species in this genus do best when kept in relatively small containers. Many Arenivaga species normally utilize small spaces like rodent burrows as their homes in the wild, so it makes sense that they would prefer more confined areas in captivity as well. I also gave them a larger moist area this time around, about half of the enclosure really, which seems to be working nicely for my other Arenivaga species as well.

Here are a few pictures of one of the males:

Let's hope my female starts laying fertile oothecae soon!

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It seems like only half of the Dorylaea orini oothecae I received from Sebastien hatched, the rest look like duds. That's OK with me though, since I still have a couple dozen nymphs, which should be more than enough to get a colony established! 😄 Some of the nymphs are starting to develop the characteristic stripes that the older nymphs of this species sport, check it out!

The nymphs of this species are so pretty, can't wait until they get bigger!

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My Gyna caffrorum are doing OK, got lots of nymphs running around, and a LOT of adult males... like there is a VERY unbalanced number of males in there compared to females, which is apparently normal for this species.

Anyway, enjoy these pictures of several males swarming a piece of banana:

Banana seems to be the preferred fruit of Gyna in my experience, nothing else elicits such a great feeding response.

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Lastly, but certainly not least, one of the two remaining Pyrophorus noctilucus larvae I bought from Gil Wizen just molted and HOLY COW, it's huge! It has definitely surpassed the size my original three larvae were when they pupated prematurely, which is great, it certainly seems like I've got the larval husbandry down now! This larva isn't even mature yet, it still has several molts left to go until it is ready to pupate properly. According to Gil, the larvae of this species can get as thick as a thumb! 😮 Now that is something I have to see for myself!

Anyway, here are a couple pictures I took of it today, I only wish I had taken some better ones that more accurately portray it's size:

It could probably take down a full grown superworm with little difficulty, I'm going to try feeding it some mature Eleodes hispilabris larvae, (which are a little smaller than superworms are), and see if it'll accept prey that large. Would definitely be more efficient than tossing in three or four yellow mealworms in with it.

Anyway, that is going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed it, will see you all next time! 😉

Pyrophorus noctilucus Offspring!!!

Well, somehow I forgot to mention this in yesterday's post, but on the 5th, I checked on my Pyrophorus noctilucus enclosure, and I saw several TINY larvae through the bottom of their enclosure! 😁😁😁 I was starting to get really nervous, wondering if I even had a female in my trio or not, I am so thrilled that I have bred these successfully!

According to Gil, I should leave the tiny larvae be for a while and let them get a little bigger before separating them, in their early stages they are quite fragile, and don't become cannibalistic until they get a little bigger anyway. Once they get a little bigger, I will separate them to avoid them cannibalizing on each other, and will put them each in their own deli cups filled with rotten wood.

Unfortunately they are way to small to get good pictures of them, will have to wait until they molt a few times before attempting to get some photos of them.

On top of this great news, the two large larvae I bought from Gil are still doing great, and are about to surpass my original three larvae in length from when they pupated prematurely! 😃 I've been feeding these ones a lot more mealworms than I fed the original trio, mainly to avoid mite problems, and it definitely seems to be working to keep the grain mites at bay.

Well, that's it for this post, just wanted to let you guys know how these were doing, hope everyone enjoyed, will you all soon! 😉

Beetles, Cockroaches, Isopods, & Whipscorpion Updates!

Well, that Eleodes pupa I showed recently has just matured, and I was right in my assumption that these were Eleodes osculans! 😃

Here are some pictures of the somewhat freshly eclosed adult:

Another pupa eclosed recently as well, and I'm sure many more will follow! Mystery solved as to what species this batch of larvae were, now to see what my E.acuticaudus/E.grandicollis larvae turn into!

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I am very happy to announce that one of my Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red" nymphs FINALLY matured into an adult female, it seems like they've been taking forever to grow, certainly longer than I expected! It was definitely worth it though, the female is a beauty, with her dark, blood red wings!

Here are some pictures of her:

It was very hard to take decent pictures of her, and I still don't feel like I've fully captured her coloration right, but these were the best photos I could get. Hopefully a male will mature soon, so I can start breeding these beauties! 😁

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My Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatians" have been doing great, and have been breeding rather prolifically as well! I still am seeing a few normal offspring pop up every now and then, but by far the majority of the offspring they are producing are dalmatians!

Here are a few pictures I took last night of a group huddled together on a dead leaf:

I'm so glad this morph was pretty easy to isolate, the coloration seems to be quite variable between individuals, which is neat! I think a few different dalmatian morphs could possibly be isolated from this one strain, so I may do some experimenting in the future, we'll see!

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My Mastigoproctus giganteus has been doing very well so far, he/she is really not picky when it comes to food, unlike some of my other predators! I've fed him/her Parcoblatta americana females, Eleodes hispilabris larvae, deformed Embaphion adults, and just the other day, a Panchlora sp. "White" male that was on death's door, I even got some pictures of him/her eating it!

Here they are:

As you can see, he/she's really fattened up since arriving at my door! I really love this species, hopefully mine will continue to do well for me for years to come! 😊

Well, that's going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all soon! 😉

PS: Wow, I just checked, and this is my 300th blog post! 😮 Happy 300th post everybody, can't believe I've written this many, these past few years have really flown by! 😄

Pasimachus & Pystalla

My Pasimachus sp. "AZ" larva has molted to L2, and is eating pre-killed mealworms like a champ! 😁 It looks like it doubled in size with this molt, it's one big Carabid larva!

Here are some pictures of it:

Here's hoping it'll make it to L3 with no problems!

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It's been a while since I talked about my Pystalla horrida, all 6 nymphs are doing very well, currently most of them are 4th instars, but they are starting to molt to L5 now! 😊 According to Alan Jeon, my L5 nymph is actually a subadult, so I'm gonna have some adults pretty soon it seems! 😮

Here are some pictures of the first nymph to molt to L5:

So far these are doing great in my care, they've grown way faster than I thought they would, and none of them have had any molting problems yet, which I've heard can be somewhat common with this species.

Anyway, that's going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all soon! 😉