Pseudacanthops lobipes Loss & Gain...

So, some bad and good news with my Pseudacanthops lobipes breeding project...

It is with a very heavy heart that I report that while I was able to rear my female Pseudacanthops nymph to maturity, she died two days after maturing... 😭

I believe the issue was ventilation, I was keeping her rather humid, but the ventilation in the setup she came with apparently wasn't high enough, and the resulting stagnant air proved fatal to her upon maturity (despite not having bothered her as a nymph). I've had a similar experience with certain Ectobiid roaches, and feel a fool for having made the exact same mistake again, this time with a mantis. 

The only other explanation that was suggested to me was she may have suffered from some random internal injury post molt as a weird fluke, but I'm not quite satisfied with that theory myself (perhaps I'm just too quick to blame myself though, IDK...).

In any case, this put me in quite a pickle, as I have a subadult male scheduled to mature soon, and no female to mate him with... Thankfully after some searching, a breeder came to me who was selling one of her excess adult females! This female had matured on Jan 15th, and is the perfect age for breeding, so I quickly purchased her, and I'm happy to say she's been doing quite well for me in the time I've had her. 😁 I've made sure that she and ALL my mantids have a lot of ventilation now, to avoid any similar incidents in the future... 😅

Here are some pictures of her:

Such a pretty species! 😍 This female is a LOT lighter than my other female was, and even has some light green mottling on her forelegs! 😁 Here's hoping she continues to do well for me, and doesn't eat the male when I attempt to mate them... Whenever he actually decides to mature that is. 🙃😂

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, I'll be sure to keep y'all posted on this project! Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

Misc February Roach Updates

Well, still no babies from my Gyna cf. sculpturata, in fact I'm becoming a little concerned considering just how long I've been waiting for offspring of this species, and none of my females look plump in the slightest... Not sure what's going on, Gyna have been real hit or miss for me lately, even though I've been doing my best to keep them more consistently warm. It's honestly rather frustrating. 😕

In any case, I finally managed to get pictures of a somewhat freshly matured adult male, so here he is:

As you can see, young males look much prettier than males a few weeks old... 😅

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Finally, I'm getting adults in my Epilamprinae sp. "Kota Kinabalu" colony! 😁 They grew quite slowly initially, but really seemed to speed up in their later instars. They have a similar color palate to Rhabdoblatta rustica, with males typically being quite reddish-orange, and females being a more olive brown (though the odd female can apparently come out more orange in color).

Here are some pictures of them:

Adult female

Adult male

Adult male, close up of ventral tarsi

Adult male, close up of last ventral abdominal segments

As you see, I took some unusual close up shots. Because we now have locality data, there is some hope for getting at least a genus ID for these. So I took pics of the last few abdominal segments, knowing the shape of the subgenital plate on males can be an important identifying feature of Epilamprinae spp., and the pics of the tarsi were at the request of a taxonomist knowledgeable in Asian Epilamprinae. I'm currently awaiting his response, if he can provide an identification, even just a genus ID, I'll likely make another post announcing that information soon. 😉

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I also got adults popping up in my Gromphadorhina portentosa "LLE Mahogany" culture! Now... I did not get the chance to up-house them, though I have added a good deal more hides. However as a result of all ~20 of them being reared in a 2 gallon tub, they're maturing at a very miniature size, (which is apparently my specialty when it comes to hissers, raising runts... 😂). Oh well, they're healthy and should still breed, and aren't overcrowded, so I don't really care that they're small, I'll rehouse them next generation for sure! 😅

Now, here are some pictures of this beautiful morph:

Adult female

Adult male

Here's hoping they'll breed well for me! 😊

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Lastly, a bittersweet update, got another brood from my Gromphadorhina sp. "Unidentified", and it's the largest one yet, around 20 nymphs or so! That's nice and all, however the female that gave birth died shortly after doing so, having suffered seemingly from a prolapse.

They were unfortunately another species I'd offered some cardboard packing material as hides, however said cardboard was later found to be laced with fire retardant chemicals, which actually poisoned several of my roaches... So I've been having odd reproduction issues and die offs in said cultures, and even though I've since removed the hides, the individuals who ingested some of that cardboard still seem to have been negatively affected. 

However, thankfully the issues do not seem to carry onto the offspring produced by these individuals, so my next generation of this species should breed just fine. Plus, I still have several gravid Gromphadorhina sp. "Unidentified" females remaining who look fairly healthy, so maybe they'll give birth to broods and actually survive as well. 😅 In any case, not too worried about losing the culture.

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

New Yard, New Springtails!

If you're wondering why the lack of posts lately, I just moved into a new place at the beginning of this month, so things have been a bit hectic as of late. 😅 Anyways, with a new house comes new opportunities for collecting new species, and this place has a fairly spacious backyard... So for the first time ever, I've made a makeshift aspirator (AKA "Pooter") for collecting microfauna, specifically springtails. 😁

I used a 2 oz deli cup, a plastic straw, some thin fabric to cover the sucking part so I don't inhale dirt and springtails, and of course, hot glue. 😄 It's not the prettiest looking thing, but it definitely works quite well, and I've collected three new springtail species as a result! (as well as some Willowsia buski, which I'll try culturing again away from my Entomobrya unostrigata...).

My first aspirator

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Now, onto the new springtails I caught! Let's start off with my new Entomobrya sp. "Eagle, ID"! These are about half the size of Entomobrya unostrigata, but are a similar shape, are also very hairy, and seem to prefer similar conditions for breeding.

I've got them in a well ventilated 16 oz deli cup with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. There are bark chips and cardboard pieces for hides/oviposition sites. I'm keeping one corner of the setup humid, the rest dry. For food I'm offering dog food (and the subsequent food mold), as well as pollen on occasion.

Here are a few photos of one:

Sadly, small, grey Entomobrya like these are difficult to ID down to species without examination under a microscope... So these may remain unidentified past genus for a while.

Thankfully I already found babies in their setup, so it looks like these are well on their way to getting established in culture! 😃

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Next up, I found quite a few Entomobrya multifasciata in the yard! These also seem to enjoy a drier microclimate, and we're more abundant than the grey Entomobrya species in the yard. I think these are the most attractive of the Entomobrya I currently culture (and closer in size to E.unostrigata than the grey sp.), I really hope they'll take off for me! 😁

I've got them in a well ventilated 16 oz deli cup with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. There is moss and cardboard pieces for hides/oviposition sites. I'm keeping one corner of the setup humid, the rest dry. For food I'm offering dog food (and the subsequent food mold), as well as pollen on occasion.

Here are some pics of these minute beauties:

Hopefully I'll see babies in their setup soon!

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Lastly, we'll end with the largest (and cutest) species I found in the yard, Isotoma viridis. I've bred this species before back in 2015, but alas, predatory mites decimated their colony back then, and I lost them as a result. This species can be a bit variable in coloration, most of the ones I found were a dark green, but a couple were a relatively bright yellow color.

I've got them in a well ventilated 16 oz deli cup with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. There is moss and cardboard pieces for hides/oviposition sites. I'm keeping the setup quite humid. For food I'm offering dog food (and the subsequent food mold), as well as pollen on occasion.

Here are some pics of these pudgy little cuties:

Dark green individual

Yellow individual

Hopefully I'll have better luck with this species this time, and maybe not lose them completely to predatory mites... 🙃 They're pretty large for a springtail, with adults reaching around 4 mms, so I'm surprised they were so negatively affected by predatory mites last time I cultured them.

Big thanks to Ryne Pavy for identifying all these springtails! If you too are interested in culturing springtails, and partake in this quickly growing sub-hobby, feel free to join the Springtail Discord Group, or the Springtail Facebook Group. 😊

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