Saturday, February 10, 2018

Lanxoblatta Babies & More!!!

A couple days ago, I decided to rearrange my "Bug Closet", so that I could place my Lanxoblatta rudis enclosure besides the heat cable in there, as my adult female was several weeks overdue in giving birth, and I assumed a lack of heat was the culprit. Well, turns out I was right, because today I checked on them and found a whole bunch of babies in there!!! 😁

Here are a few pictures of them, they are SO adorable! 😊





I was starting to get quite worried about the fact that my female hadn't given birth yet, I'm so glad I figured out what the problem was, and fixed it in short order! Hopefully these resulting nymphs will be easy to rear! 

My Hormetica apolinari nymphs are doing well, and growing ever so slowly. I sexed mine a little while back, and it turns out I have three males and three females, which is great! It turns out this species is even bigger than Lucihormetica grossei, which is already quite a large roach, so I'm very excited to see mine mature! 

Here are some pictures I took of a female nymph, (my largest), she molted somewhat recently and has turned a beautiful black color with a couple dark red spots on the pronotum:




Such a beautiful species, even as nymphs! 😍

My Balta notulata colony has exploded recently, and I've even had to start splitting the culture in two to avoid an overpopulation crash! This is probably the most prolific Ectobiid I've ever bred, too bad I'm not a mantid or small spider enthusiast, as I'm sure these would make great food for them in place of fruit flies! 

Anyway, I got a picture of some nymphs and an adult eating, as well as a video that I'll upload to my YouTube channel soon:


As you can see, it's a real feeding frenzy in there! 

Lastly, I'm sure most of you have noticed by now, but in case you haven't, I have created a new page titled "Care Sheets", where I'll be writing care sheets for some of the invertebrates I've successfully bred, (particularly those that are hard to find care info on). Feel free to check it out, I'll be adding new care sheets every now and then, when I have the time, (and the interest). 🙂

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

5 comments:

  1. The nymph/adult dimorphism in that Balta pic is so strikingly beautiful at full zoom. It's living proof that the bugs aren't always greener on the other side of the fence.





    How many nymphs does each normal Lanxoblatta produce?

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    1. Yeah, I personally think the nymphs of B.notulata are way more attractively patterned than the adults, (not that the adults aren't good looking themselves though!). Same with Lanxoblatta IMO, the bark-like coloration and unique shape totally trumps the dark reddish-brown colored adults! :)

      Gil says female Lanxoblatta have about 20 nymphs per litter, I'll try and get an accurate count of how many nymphs I have tomorrow, don't wanna stress them out too much today. Females are also supposed to give birth at least twice before they die.

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    2. I found a total of 27 Lanxoblatta nymphs, but it's possible I missed one or two. Pretty decent sized litter in my opinion! :D

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    3. At this rate, discroaches may soon become as commonplace as Panchlora and Blaberus!

      Does the possibility of two females nymphing simultaneously exist?

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    4. Yeah, this species seems to be fairly prolific! :)
      And no, my other female is still a subadult, though I expect with the added heat, she'll mature very soon!

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