Some pics I took of a glob of them hiding under bark:
One of the cutest and easiest of the "spiny" isopods in culture.
I got some Ischnoptera bilunata from Ty Dye Exotics a while back, but never got around to posting about them until now. It's a hardy and prolific species of cockroach, that IMO makes for a decent occasional feeder, or just a neat little pet species.
I have mine set up in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped in cardboard rolls and egg crate hides. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-85F°, and am feeding them dog food and the occasional apple slice.
Here are some pictures of them swarming food:
I really like this species and find their patterning quite attractive, it's hard to capture on film but the adult females (which are darker and a bit more broad than the males) have an almost purplish sheen to them.
If anyone's interested in working with these cuties, they have been added to my For Sale page (along with every other species in this post actually)... wink wink nudge nudge. 😉 I think Ty also has them in stock, and I highly recommend him as a reputable vendor to buy from as well! If not roaches then at least get some scorpions from him, he's got some crazy variety available right now, the likes of which I've not personally seen in quite a while! 👀
Now for another roach I have not posted about, but I got over a year ago from my buddy Brandon Maines, Paraplecta minutissima "Kenya", AKA the "Little Kenyan Roach". A cute species that does great in well ventilated, semi-humid bins with other larger roaches (like hissers). Often used as cleaner crews for those aforementioned roaches and as feeders, this is a popular little species that I finally decided to start keeping.
I have mine set up in a well ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of coco fiber substrate, kept on a 50/50 moisture gradient. They have egg crates and cardboard rolls on top of the substrate to cling to/hide on, and there are a few miscellaneous hisser males in there as well since they seem to like having a larger roach in with them for whatever reason. I'm feeding them dog food and apple, and have them at around 80-85F°.
Here are a few pics:
The adult males are brachyapterous and rather stout and rotund, while the females are microapterous and get dang near sausage shaped as they become well fed/gravid. 😆 A cute little species that is unique in culture, and the smallest Blaberid species in captivity currently!
My Trachelipus caucasius culture has been booming, IME it seems they like minimal ventilation and very high humidity (though my lower ambient room humidity may have a role to play in those preferences).
Here are some pics of a nice looking adult, since I realized I only have photos of juveniles:
It's kind of a shame how unpopular these are, they get to a nice size, are hardy and have some cool patterning to them!
Speaking of unpopular Trachelipus, my T.sp. "Balkan Giant" unfortunately crashed hard, and I seem to be down to a couple unmated females. Not really sure what happened, I had noticed their setupgot overrun by invading Proporcellio, so I isolated my remaining Balkans and put them in a new setup under the same conditions. But then they just died off one by one... weird.
Lastly, I have yet to show these off, but a while ago I acquired Platymeris rhadamanthus "Mombo" from the original collector of this stock. He had noted that the original founding stock had yellow spots on their wings, and that his colony had thrown out a wide variety of color forms (see my post here talking about hobby Platymeris for more info).
So I got eggs and hatched them out, rearing them in hopes for a more variable "Mombo" line. But alas, they all matured into adults with the standard orange wing spots. It would appear that if anything, adult coloration in this locality stock may have more to do with humidity and/or other environmental factors than strictly genetics.
Anyways, I have my colony in a moderately ventilated enclosure with a bare bottom and eggcrate hides. There is a deli cup filled with moist coco fiber for egg laying on one side, and I'm keeping them at around 80-85F°. I feed them a wide variety of live invertebrates, mostly roaches.
Here are some pictures of an adult:
I am a bit bummed out by the lack of color variation in this stock, but hey, at least I got a colony of "Mombo" finally, and man are they pretty nonetheless! 😍
Well, that's gonna do it for this post! Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉
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