Comparing Duckies, & Isolating Dark Blonde Duckies?

Well I've got some interesting things to share regarding my Cubaris sp. "Blonde Ducky". I had some darker individuals pop up in my colony, not something I'd heard of happening with this particular species. When dark like this, they really look like sp. "Rubber Ducky", and it seems some people consider those and sp. "Blonde Ducky" to be the same.

However, IMO they differ noticeably in morphology, with sp. "Blonde Ducky" being more flat and having a wider skirt, whereas sp. "Rubber Ducky" are a bit skinnier and more cylindrical. Even more noticeable IMo is the different segment shapes between the two, particular of their last few "tail" segments. So I'm of the opinion that they are two distinct species, with unfortunately very similar sounding strain names (they even named the all orange/yellow morph of sp. "Rubber Ducky" "Blonde", and the intergrade between the wild type coloration and the orange/yellow morph "Blond-ish"... Why??? 😫). However, we won't know for sure until individuals are sent to a researcher and he can examine their morphology more closely, and preferably their genetic relationship as well.

Anyways, here are some pictures of my dark color form (DCF) sp. "Blonde Ducky", as well as comparison shots between these and sp. "Rubber Ducky":

Female sp. "Blonde Ducky - DCF"

Male sp. "Blonde Ducky - DCF"

Female & Male sp. "Blonde Ducky - DCF"

Male sp. "Rubber Ducky - Blond-ish"

Male sp. "Blonde Ducky - DCF" VS Male sp."Rubber Ducky"

Definitely, these two are different species. And I might be the first to get dark individuals to pop up in their sp. "Blonde Ducky" colony? If not, I'll at least probably be the first to try and isolate for this coloration lol, I've got my dark individuals in their own setup now, and the female in these pictures is gravid, so I'll have babies soon! 🤞

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! 😉

More Corydiid Updates!

Oh boy, do I have lots of Corydiid updates, mostly about Arenivaga spp.. 😄

First off, I've got an adults in my Arenivaga sp. "Animas, NM" culture! Now I had originally tentatively ID'd these for Kyle as cf. tenax based on photos of his males. However, I've worked with two other strains that are more probably tenax than these Animas Arenivaga (namely "Dell City" and "Socorro"), and they look really different, with females and nymphs being darker and heavily patterned. Whereas these sp. "Animas" have barely any patterning and are a very light tan/orange color. The "Animas" also seem to have longer legs and look more lanky than the other cf. tenax strains I've worked with. So, despite the males' similarity to A.tenax, I no longer think they're that species.

Anyways, here are some pictures of the nymphs and adults:

Nymphs

Adult female

Adult males

Adult pair

A very pretty looking species, hopefully one that will breed nicely for me! 😁

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For comparison, let's examine my Arenivaga cf. tenax "Socorro, TX" strain, (which are breeding very well for me BTW, and are now available for sale! 😉). I wanted to get some pictures of an adult pair side by side, so here are some pics of a couple pairs, (and a random lone female pic):

Adult female

Adult pairs

Here's hoping these become more popular in the hobby, these have been a breeze to rear and breed so far. 😊

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I just had an adult pair of Arenivaga sp. "Rodeo" pop up in my culture, and the adults look almost identical to the "Socorro" and "Dell City" cf. tenax strains I've kept, so I'm pretty sure these are the same species, and I'll now refer to them as Arenivaga cf. tenax "Rodeo, NM".

Here are some pictures of them:

Adult female

Adult male

Their nymphs look pretty similar to the other two cf. tenax strains I've worked with, but differ a little bit in exact coloration and patterning (which is easily explained by locality differences), but are otherwise identical in morphology, and the adults look the same IMO.

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Lastly, but not leastly, my largest Polyphaga plancyi female is FINALLY mature! 😁 And she's beautiful, here's hoping she mates with my male soon and starts laying some oothecae!

Here are some pictures of the female, and a couple shots of her side by side with the male:

Adult female

Adult pair

This is probably my favorite species of Polyphaga in culture, I'm so looking forward to seeing these established in the US hobby! 😁

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