Well it's that time of year again, time to "clean up" my collection so to speak, and get rid of whatever species I no longer want, and those that have been compromised by pathogens.
I decided to release my Hymenorus sp., as well as my main Eleodes rileyi colony. I lost interest in breeding both, however I did manage to pupate a few larvae of the latter, which, when mature, I will keep separate in various other Tenebrionid/cockroach enclosures as pets, (much like I did with my Eleodes hispilabris).
My Edrotes ventricosus have all died off now, with no signs of any eggs being laid unfortunately. 😩 No sort of "Spring cleaning" with these, they just died out by themselves due to old age.
Unfortunately, I've frozen and disposed of my entire Embaphion cf. contusum colony, as they became infested with some sort of entomophagus fungus. All the larvae kept dying prematurely, and when they died they became very hard and crispy. When broken, you could see the insides were literally just fungus. If left in the substrate, their bodies became encrusted in white and green mold. The adults didn't seem to be as badly affected, but they were dwindling down for sure, so I just euthanized them all to prevent the fungus from spreading to other cultures.
My Blaberus sp. "Venezuela" haven't been doing all that well for me, with several of my females aborting oothecae and one giving birth to a extremely small litter. I attribute this to the relatively shallow enclosure I kept them in, apparently they do enjoy a lot more verticality than I thought they did, (my B.atropos were content to stay buried most of the time). So, I gave them away to a friend, hopefully they'll do much better in his care!
I also gave away my CB Pasimachus sp. "AZ" with the elytra deformity to the same friend. That breeding project had become an obvious dead end, and I didn't really have much of a desire to keep it any longer, so I figured I'd give it away to someone else who would get more enjoyment out of it than I would.
Lastly, I fed off the remainder of my Deropeltis sp. "Jinka" adults, while their defensive fluids may deter most vertebrate predators, they are no match for my hungry Rose hair tarantula and my Scolopendra longipes. Thus ends the Deropeltis saga... for now.
Well, that's it for this post, just wanted to let you all know what's left my collection! Thanks for reading, will see you all next time! 😉
NO, not the Embaphion!! :( Very, very surprising that an entomophagous fungus could even be present in such a dry and well ventilated environment as theirs. Very sorry to hear, man, they were one of your coolest tenebs for sure. :(
ReplyDeleteYeah, it really sucks... :( And I know, I was SO surprised that they of all things had a entomophagus fungus infestation, it was a weird one too, quite possibly a Tenebrionid larva specialist. Oh well, at least I still have my muricatum! (Though some work needs to be done to revamp their colony IMO).
DeleteWhat luck. lol
DeleteYea, that is good news! Hopefully you'll be able to get them back up and breeding at top efficiency again, but if not, I'm making an attempt at breeding them so I may be able to help out eventually. ;)
I think they just need a good substrate replacement, and all will be well again. I also need to make pupating what little larvae I have left a priority.
DeleteGood luck with yours, they are pretty easy to breed, but old adults may need a diapause to continue reproducing, fresh adults reproduce right away though.
Why do entomophagous pathogens find you so many times?
DeleteAlso, have you ever gotten successful colonies of rarely kept native spp in other hobbyists’ hands? I know you have been selling Meracantha and Coniontis
I don't know, bad luck I suppose.
DeleteAnd nope, no one has ever bought Coniontis, Meracantha or any other rare native Tenebs besides Embaphion muricatum and Eleodes tribulus from me, perhaps because I usually only sell larvae, which people aren't that interested in raising themselves.
@Invertebrate Dude, Well, that's good, hopefully that's the case. :) According to Kyle, E. cf. contusum reproduce around the clock thus requiring no diapause, so hopefully these prove not to as well.
DeleteThat's what I've been told about contusum as well, not sure whether the same applies to muricatum yet though, as I have plenty of year old adults who aren't producing anything.
DeleteInteresting, have you had a chat with Mike to confirm if the same thing is going on with his as well?
DeleteNope, since I do wanna test if changing the substrate is all that's needed first.
DeleteHEY, just checked my Embaphion enclosure with the old adults, and there are actually a ton of tiny larvae in there now, just wasn't looking closely enough! :D So that's good, they were just waiting until later in the spring to start ovipositing again!
DeleteYES
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