Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Myriapod Madness Pt.2, Plus a Few Additional Updates

I won a contest held by Michael Dixon from Mike's House of A Thousand Legs, and I got a beautiful Rhysida sp. "Purple", some small white springtails, and a few Oxidus gracilis.

I am loving my Rhysida sp. "Purple", it is absolutely beautiful! It is being housed in a small container filled with coconut fiber mixed with a tiny bit of sand, there is a piece of bark in the cage as a hide, and well as some moss. It attacked and ate one roach nymph, and it killed one but did not feed on it immediately, I later checked on it and the roach had been eaten. 

Here are some pictures of the beauty! 










The enclosure
Went a bit picture crazy on this guy, I love him/her so much! The small springtails were sent in the centipede's substrate, so they are its cage, somewhere...

My Oxidus gracilis are being housed in a deli cup filled with coconut fiber, there is a layer of dead leaves on top of the substrate, as well as some moss. They are being fed the dead leaves, and dog food. They are supposed to be quite prolific, hopefully they will do well for me.

Here are some pics:







Their enclosure
A few weeks ago I helped cut down a friends tree, it was a old, dead maple tree. Inside were some click beetles, longhorn beetle larvae, springtails, and these tiny Julid millipedes. I believe they are Blaniulus guttulatus, an common introduced European species. They are in a few of my cages that are using the wood I got from the tree, I will isolate them soon. They eat rotten wood, dead leaves, and dog food.

Here are some pictures of one:






That's it for the Myriapods, but I do have a couple of other things I want to show you guys!

My male Melanolestes picipes has passed away, he was probably a bit old and the males don't seem to live that long. The female is still kicking though, and she has been laying eggs! I found five, but I'm sure there are more.

I took all five I found and put them each in their own enclosures, because once those eggs hatch the bloodthirsty nymphs will try to eat each other if kept in the same cage. They are in small deli cups filled with thin layers of moist coconut fiber. Hopefully they'll hatch soon!

Here are a few pics of them:




I'll keep you guys updated on these, I can't wait until they hatch! :)

A few days ago I was at a medical clinic, and I saw something crawling on the floor. I quickly grabbed one of the small containers that I keep in my bag for such an occasion, and scooped the little bugger out of harm's way. It was an adult female snakefly, Agulla sp. I have seen the larva many times but have never seen an adult in person. I decided to keep her, and I brought her home.

I have her in a container filled with some coconut fiber, and I have some upright bark pieces and some dead leaves as hides/perches. I tried feeding her cat food, tiny Parcoblatta americana nymphs, and a big pre-killed P.americana nymph, non of which were consumed.

After reading up a bit, I found that these guys were picky eaters, and that they liked aphids. So I got some from my backyard, which elicited an immediate feeding response. I'm hoping she has been mated, as I would love for her to lay some eggs!

Here are some pictures of her:






Well, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all next time! :)

2 comments:

  1. I love the snake fly, it's head is almost tiger beetle-ish! Does it ever try to fly?

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    1. Yeah, it did try to fly a bit, however these guys are extremely weak fliers and she only made it a few inches. Unfortunately she has passed away now, I didn't think she would live too long. Hopefully she laid some eggs...

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