Hey guys, hope all is well with you! 🙂 I just wanted to write this post explaining what happened to my Apsena sp. "Kuna" colony, because as a few of you may have noticed, they are no longer listed on my "Current Species List".
I was never really planning on keeping these beetles long term, I just wanted to see if they could be bred in captivity easily, (they definitely can), and wanted to get photos of larvae and pupae for science, as no one's ever bred this genus as far as I know, nor were there any photos of larvae or pupae in existence.
Well, I've accomplished all my goals with this species, and after rearing a few to adulthood I was planning on releasing them all back where I found them, but it turns out a few keepers wanted to continue on with breeding them, so I ended up splitting the colony in half and sending them to two US Teneb breeders, one of which is the author of the awesome blog, All About Arthropods, which I highly suggest you check out if you haven't already! 😁
So yeah, I am no longer breeding this species, but I did successfully rear around 50 adults, which is impressive considering I started the colony with half a dozen adults in late April/May... Definitely a fast growing, prolific and hardy species, which I hope will persist in the hobby for quite some time to come, thanks to the breeders I've sent them to!
Well that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Small Bantua Update
My Bantua sp. "Namibia" are still doing well, no babies yet, though I'm expecting some any day now!🤞Most of my nymphs have matured at this point, with only 2-3 small nymphs remaining. Before they all mature though, I wanted to get some pictures of one of the nymphs fully covered in their waxy secretion, which appears to be unique to this genus. Well I'm happy to say that a week or two ago, I did just that! 😄
Here are a couple pictures of a subadult male, covered in the waxy secretion:
I think that male actually matured a couple days after that photoshoot, so I got those pics just in time! 😁 I'll be sure to keep y'all updated on any big changes with this species, fingers crossed my next post about them will be showing off some babies! 😊
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed this little update, thanks for reading, I'll see you all in the next post! 😉
Here are a couple pictures of a subadult male, covered in the waxy secretion:
I think that male actually matured a couple days after that photoshoot, so I got those pics just in time! 😁 I'll be sure to keep y'all updated on any big changes with this species, fingers crossed my next post about them will be showing off some babies! 😊
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed this little update, thanks for reading, I'll see you all in the next post! 😉
Thursday, August 15, 2019
Caught in a Pink Romance
Rah rah ah-ah-ah!
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga ooh-la-la!
Want your pink romance! 😜
Seriously though, love is in the air in my pink roach enclosure, and the rest of this post explains why!
See, I knew my old adult male Gyna capucina was still alive, as we discussed in my last post about this species, I even snapped a couple pictures of him, as well as the newly mature female I found then. I was a bit worried about his fertility, and wondered if he might already be sterile due to old age, in which case I thought my female would die without mating, as I didn't think any other males were even close to maturing. That would obviously be a big waste of a female, especially since under optimal conditions they have quite large litters...
Luckily though, I was wrong, as when I was doing enclosure maintenance a couple of weeks ago, I found at least TWO recently matured, perfectly virile adult males! 😁 There might even be a third, but I only caught a glance before it buried itself rapidly, so it may have been the older male... In any case though, my female will DEFINITELY be fertilized soon, (if she hasn't been already), and should give birth to a bunch of nymphs if all goes well! 😊
Anyways, here are some photos of one of the the new studs! This time I tried a variety of backgrounds when photographing, to try and get the most authentic coloration I could, and while the ones with the white background may be a bit tough to look at, the true pink color of the males showed up best in those ones:
Fingers crossed I can breed this species successfully, they are so, so pretty, definitely more so in person than in photos! 😍
Also, I've been meaning to feed both these and my Bantua some artificial pollen, as apparently Gyna love it, and seeing as Bantua are semi-aboreal, it seems reasonable enough to me that they'd come across pollen in the wild. Thankfully my buddy Brandon Maines at Magnificent Beasts just hooked me up with some, so I'll definitely be offering it to these two species regularly! 😄
It's quite a good supplement to the diet of a variety of roach genera, and palynivores like Pseudoglomeris magnifica or Hemithyrsocera vittata/palliata breed and develop far better when it's included in their diet. Brandon should have some more artificial pollen in stock right now for a good price, so if you'd like to add it to your roaches' diets, I'd hit him up at Magnificent Beasts. 😉
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, I'll see you all next time! 🙂
Ro mah ro-mah-mah
Gaga ooh-la-la!
Want your pink romance! 😜
Seriously though, love is in the air in my pink roach enclosure, and the rest of this post explains why!
See, I knew my old adult male Gyna capucina was still alive, as we discussed in my last post about this species, I even snapped a couple pictures of him, as well as the newly mature female I found then. I was a bit worried about his fertility, and wondered if he might already be sterile due to old age, in which case I thought my female would die without mating, as I didn't think any other males were even close to maturing. That would obviously be a big waste of a female, especially since under optimal conditions they have quite large litters...
Luckily though, I was wrong, as when I was doing enclosure maintenance a couple of weeks ago, I found at least TWO recently matured, perfectly virile adult males! 😁 There might even be a third, but I only caught a glance before it buried itself rapidly, so it may have been the older male... In any case though, my female will DEFINITELY be fertilized soon, (if she hasn't been already), and should give birth to a bunch of nymphs if all goes well! 😊
Anyways, here are some photos of one of the the new studs! This time I tried a variety of backgrounds when photographing, to try and get the most authentic coloration I could, and while the ones with the white background may be a bit tough to look at, the true pink color of the males showed up best in those ones:
Fingers crossed I can breed this species successfully, they are so, so pretty, definitely more so in person than in photos! 😍
Also, I've been meaning to feed both these and my Bantua some artificial pollen, as apparently Gyna love it, and seeing as Bantua are semi-aboreal, it seems reasonable enough to me that they'd come across pollen in the wild. Thankfully my buddy Brandon Maines at Magnificent Beasts just hooked me up with some, so I'll definitely be offering it to these two species regularly! 😄
It's quite a good supplement to the diet of a variety of roach genera, and palynivores like Pseudoglomeris magnifica or Hemithyrsocera vittata/palliata breed and develop far better when it's included in their diet. Brandon should have some more artificial pollen in stock right now for a good price, so if you'd like to add it to your roaches' diets, I'd hit him up at Magnificent Beasts. 😉
Well, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, I'll see you all next time! 🙂
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