Random Culture Updates & Overdude Species Introductions!

My Cristarmadillidium muricatum have been popping off! Unfortunately the "Dalmatian/Pied" morph I was working on isolating appears to have been a viral infection rather than genetically hereditary... as none of the offspring produced by those adults, nor the offspring's offspring came out with that patterning. But oh well, I got a healthy colony of C.muricatum out of that attempt, which I won't complain too much about. 😅

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! 😉 

IMPORTANT PSA Re; My Cubaris sp. "Surat Thani" Stock!

If you or a loved one bought Cubaris sp. "Surat Thani" from me... unfortunately it's been revealed that the stock I had was mislabeled. They are actually Cubaris sp. "Salmon Martinique". This re-identification of my stock comes from morphological features and also behavioral ones, I noticed they were breeding much faster and seemed much more hardy than sp. "Surat Thani" I kept years ago, and that their coloration looked a little off. So I asked some experts, and lo and behold they are apparently just mislabeled sp. "Salmon Martinique"...

I apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused any customers of mine, I am very careful and meticulous with how I label my stocks to ensure that people get what they are looking for, but unfortunately this one slipped through the cracks. Me not having a TON of isopods, specifically the other orange Cubaris spp. to compare to, and not being an expert on identifying them by any means, resulted in this mishap. I just took the ID they were marketed under at face value, and that's on me. 

Unfortunately rampant mislabeling of species is very much a thing in this hobby, and is a problem that tends to get worse and worse over time. I have unfortunately been unable to source any real sp. "Surat Thani" as of late, and wonder if they're actually extinct from the US hobby...

So TLDR; if you got Cubaris sp. "Surat Thani" from me, you in fact got Cubaris sp. "Salmon Martinique". Please relabel your setups accordingly. Pictures below are of my current stock, identified now as C.sp. "Salmon Martinique".

Phone Pics

Camera Pics

Anyways, that does it for this post. Thanks for reading, and again, apologies for the inconvenience this may have caused anyone who obtained this mislabeled stock from me.

Scorpions & Scorpions, & More Scorpions...

Over the past little while I have accumulated random scorpion specimens, usually not on purpose or with long term plans on keeping them since scorpions are kind of a touchy subject with my family... 😅 

One such example would be this Chihuahuanus cf. crassimanus "Ector County, TX", that was randomly gifted to me over a year ago along with several other inverts from that region. This thing has done quite well and molted twice in my care, seems to feed well on small roaches and/or prekilled items as well.

Here are a couple pics of the cutie:

A very small species, pretty slow growing too.

---

Next up, I caught a medium sized Paruroctonus borealis from Kepros Mountain, ID. This one is caught just to get pictures of, I feel like there aren't a lot of scorpion sightings here in ID so I want to catalog them when I find a new species I've not yet seen here.

A couple photos of the handsome scorp:

I like the darker markings on these ones, a really attractive native scorpion.

---

Lastly we have a female Paravaejovis confusus from Swan Falls, ID... how do I know it's female? Because she gave birth just a few days ago. 🙃 I caught this one just for photos as well, did not expect it to be a gravid female.

Here she is in all her glory:

Babies... so many babies.

A pretty specimens for sure, now I got a bunch of babies to get rid of though... whoops. 😆 

Well now I've found three species in Idaho, the third being Hadrurus spadix (not included in this post, but I do have an immature of that species I'm looking to get rid of as well).

Anyways, I am looking to get rid of each of the above individuals, so if anyone's looking to acquire some new scorpion friends, feel free to email me at invertebratedude@gmail.com, or PM me on one of my socials. 😄

That does it for this post, thanks for reading, I'll see you all next time! 😉 

Neat New Isopods & Firefly Mimic Roaches!

I recently acquired a new line of Agabiformius cf. lentus from Trastevere, Italy. They were collected in potted plants outside a little tourist shop there, and are quite cute little things. I really love the reddish-orange margins to their bodies, and their very squat morphology overall.

I have them in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate topped with bark and leaf litter. I am keeping them humid, at around 75-80F, and am feeding dog food as their supplemental diet. 

Here are some pictures of them:

A cute new strain of this species that I hope we'll see firmly established in the hobby going forward!

---

Last year I crossed Porcellio hoffmanseggii "Orange" and "White-Out" to attempt to create a yellow morph (as has been done in Porcellionides pruinosus). Unfortunately, this was unsuccessful, none of their offspring or their offspring's offspring produced anything unusual, instead just a rather even mix of wild types, oranges and white individuals. So I threw all of the project containers into one culture, which I am using the term "Lottery Mix" for (a common strain name for a mix of different morphs thrown together). 

If anyone wants any of these to attempt to isolate morphs out of, I do have them available on my For Sale page now. Keep in mind that because of the many genetics at play, isolating any of these morphs from the culture may be more difficult than isolating for typical simple recessive traits.

Hopefully something interesting will pop out of this culture one day, but I'm not holding my breath.

---

Here's another new species for me, Armadilloniscus sp. "Lido Beach, Venice, Italy". These are a dwarf, coastal species that thankfully do not seem to require saline conditions. They have VERY small broods of half a dozen or less at a time, and seem to prefer damp but not soaking wet conditions.

I have mine in a moderately ventilated container with a thin layer of sand mixed with a small amount of coco fiber, topped in coco coir chunks and leaf litter. I am feeding them fish food pellets and algae wafers as their supplemental diet.

Here are a couple half decent photos I was able to snatch of a large individual:

I know some have kept the native/adventive species found here in the US before, but normally with very limited and short term success. So here's hoping this Italian species will do well for me long term. 

---

Lastly, it's high time I showed off my Schultesia lampyridiformis, AKA the "Firefly Mimic Cockroach". I got mine from Brandon Maines last year, and they are now absolutely popping off. This species is a good alternative feeder, despite mimicking a very distasteful beetle, they are perfectly safe to consume and an active, non-burrowing species. They are rumored to be found in abandoned bird nests in the wild, which is an interesting observation, I'm sure they would also be found in accumulations of debris caught in branches in trees and tree holes as well.

I have mine set up in a moderately ventilated gallon jar, with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate topped with a bunch of artificial fern fronds for hides. I keep them dry, and at around 80-85F, and feed them dog food and apple slices.

Here are some pictures of them swarming an apple slice:

A pretty and unique little species of roach, that for whatever reason are lumped into Zetoborinae, the subfamily containing all the flat bark roaches like Capucina, Lanxoblatta, Phortioeca, Schizopilia, etc., weird right? Wonder if that will change in the future.

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

New Eurycotis, Mahogany Pics, & Edrotes Larvae!

Here I get to showcase a new addition to the US hobby, one of two Eurycotis species collected from Golfito, Costa Rica. One species is small, red, and I suspect is E.biolleyi, and I've unfortunately not had much luck with my starter group of those... The species I'm showing off today is about twice as large, much darker, and I've actually had great success breeding them so far. I'm not sure what species they may be, for now I am referring to them as Eurycotis sp. "Golfito, Costa Rica - Dark" for now.

I have them set up in a moderately ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber substrate, topped with eggcrates and paper towel rolls for hides. I am keeping them humid, at around 80-85F, and am feeding them dog food and fruits. 

Here are some pictures of an adult female:

They have proven to be both rather prolific, and not too aggressive or sensitive to crowding. They seem to be a good beginner Eurycotis species, and I hope they will catch on in the hobby!

---

I got some decent pictures of my Gromphadorhina portentosa "LLE Mahogany" recently, it's hard to capture their coloration accurately on my camera, but this is about as close as I can get!

Males

Male (Top) & Female (Bottom)

Truly one of the most hardy hisser lines I've ever worked with, these are really slept on in the hobby!

---

I was recently sent some Edrotes ventricosus from Palm Desert, CA. These are a true psammophile, with very short lived adults (by Tenebrionid standards at least, a mere few months). Adults will seemingly only oviposit in very fine sand substrate, very few people have recorded getting eggs or larvae from theirs. I have succeeded in getting both now, and I'm hoping to rear said offspring to adulthood with any luck!

The breeding setup is a well ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of fine sand substrate, topped with some eggcrate pieces for the adults to hide under. I'm keeping a third of the substrate moist, the rest dry, and have them at around 80-85F°. I'm feeding them dog food and fish pellets.

So far the larvae seem to spend most of their time in the drier parts of the substrate, very much like Triorophus larvae (which are in the same tribe). That being said, they do seem to have some die offs if the enclosure dries out completely between waterings. They are growing rather fast, and don't seem terribly cannibalistic. Hopefully they'll be relatively easy to rear in a communal setting, as I've been doing with their close relatives Triorophus... 

Anyways, here are some pictures of the adults, and perhaps the only pictures of Edrotes larvae on the internet?

Adults

Larva

A very typical Pimeliinae build for the larvae, with that long and slender morphology reminiscent again of other Edrotini like Triorophus, and the relatively closely related Coniontini. Hopefully I can rear them to maturity successfully! 🤞 

Anyways, that does it for today, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see y'all in the next post! 😉