More Eucorydia Adults!

Well finally getting some more adults in my Eucorydia bin, and this time I've got a healthy looking female, one that's been pumping oothecae out already! 😁 She's also got some odd coloration too, one of her tegmina is a faded orange color, so weird. I also found a male that was mostly green instead of blue, so I'm getting some interesting color variation in my culture. 🤔 

Anyways, here are some pics:

Adult female, note the orange-ish right tegmina.

An oddly very green adult male

Hopefully that female keeps on laying ooths, and I get a good amount of offspring this generation! 😁 There's another subadult female in there, as well as some more subadult males, so things are looking good for this species.

Well, that's gonna do it for this little update, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see everyone next time! 😉

My First Breeding Loan!

That's right, I've initiated my first breeding loan ever, with fellow hobbyist Paulo Padilla! He had a male Pseudacanthops lobipes nymph that was of a decent size, and my female is nearly mature, so it was really a no-brainer to do a breeding loan with Paulo. He sent his male to me, and it's a nice healthy looking specimen, so hopefully I'm successful in rearing him to adulthood and pairing him with my female! 🤞😅 

Here are some pictures of the little guy:

I think he's pre-sub or pre-pre-sub, I'll be power feeding him and hopefully he'll catch up to the female pretty quickly. Really looking forward to pairing these, and hopefully I'll get a good amount of ooths if I'm successful (which will be split with Paulo of course).

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this short post, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Asbolus mexicanus Larvae!

Well it's been a while, but I've finally started to figure out how to care for Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus larvae and eggs. They need nearly bone dry conditions, with just a tiny bit of substrate that's slightly moist to retreat to. This is in direct contrast to Cryptoglossa muricata larvae which like higher humidity, (though they can't tolerate soaking wet substrate for even short periods of time). I killed quite a few A.m.mexicanus eggs and larvae by isolating them and keeping them too humid... But now that I've corrected this mistake, I have half a dozen larvae of various stages growing well for me, and the adults have kept randomly laying eggs throughout the year. 🙂

I actually dumped the contents of one of the deli cups I had isolated an Asbolus egg in earlier this year into my Triorophus sp. "Fort Stockton, TX" enclosure months ago, since I dug through the sand and didn't see the Asbolus egg or larva, and assumed it died. Apparently it was still alive though, because I found a half grown A.m.mexicanus larva in my Triorophus container last week... 😂 I was wondering where the last few large Triorophus larvae I had in there went, I thought they'd just died randomly... But nope, this Asbolus probably ate them. 🙃 Oh well, I reared quite a few Triorophus to adulthood regardless, and as a side note, I'm now finding F2 Triorophus larvae in the substrate! 😁

Anyways, here are some pics of an Asbolus mexicanus mexicanus larva, (specifically the stowaway I found in my Triorophus setup):

Hopefully I can rear a decent amount of these to adulthood, would be nice to get a good colony of them going. 😄 Now if only I could figure out how to get Asbolus laevis to oviposit...

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today's post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Back From the Brink: Rhabdoblatta rustica!

Well, just a short while ago it seemed like all hope was lost for Rhabdoblatta rustica (formerly misidentified as R.formosana) in the hobby, they're only really in culture here in the US, and everyone I knew of who had this species (as well as everyone they knew), had horrible culture crashes due to a myriad of reasons. Kyle from Roachcrossing was the last person with a potentially viable population; three hopefully mated females, but alas two of those females died without producing a brood, and things were looking bleak, with all hope resting on that one female.

As Kyle was lamenting about this bad news on one of his recent livestreams, I decided to put out some posts on some Facebook groups asking if anyone still had a culture of this species. And lo and behold, I got a tip that one vendor, Paul's Pills, still had a colony of this species and was selling them! I immediately messaged Paul, who was quick to write back and confirm that he did indeed have a healthy culture of Rhabdoblatta rustica! And more importantly, was selling them for a great price! 😁 I quickly spread the word on the Livestream and to my friends who'd be interested in them, and I'm sure Paul probably had some of the best Rhabdoblatta sales ever as a result of being the LAST hobbyist with a healthy culture left... 😂

So now, I'm sure you know where this is going... I bought myself a group of 20 nymphs, and I am once again keeping Rhabdoblatta rustica! (if only to help keep them in culture! 😅). These did well for me in the past, and despite multiple crashes, I was always able to get them back up and running. So hopefully I'll have similar luck this go around, and maybe spread them around a bit more in the hobby as well. 😄

I've got them set up in a moderately ventilated gallon container with some slightly used Ancaudellia substrate at the bottom (which is mostly just aged sawdust), with paper towel rolls and leaf litter hides on top. I am keeping them humid and warm (75-80F°). For food I'll offer dog food and fruits. I've put in some Pogonognathellus dubius springtails as cleaners, as a sort of test run to see how that species fares in roach enclosures. Out of the 20 nymphs, only two were subadults, the rest were small and medium nymphs. But that subadult pair ended up being a male and female, and they've just matured, so breeding can commence! 😃

Here are some pictures of the sexed pair that just matured:

Adult male

Adult female

Adult pair

Been a while since I've seen this species, but dang are they pretty! 😍 Hopefully I'll be able to breed them with little issue! 😄 Props to Paul's Pills for keeping this species going this whole time! Glad to be able to get a group of this species again, some of you may not know this, but the roach in the picture that serves as the backdrop for this blog is in fact a freshly molted adult Rhabdoblatta rustica. ☺️

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉