Showing posts with label Archimandrita tesselata. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Archimandrita tesselata. Show all posts

Saturday, January 11, 2025

More Roachy Updates!

My Eurycotis improcera colony has started throwing out individuals with white eyes, which is pretty awesome! Should be a simple recessive gene as in other roach species, so I've isolated about 8 of these individuals in the hopes of isolating this morph. 

Here are some pictures of an adult male:









Hopefully this morph proves out, if so this will be the first cockroach morph I've ever isolated, and a first isolation for this species in captivity as far as I'm aware! 😁

This Summer I received a culture of Arenivaga cf. nalepae from Bakersfield, CA, courtesy of BLANK. This is a new species for culture, and one of many California endemic Arenivaga species (which we still need more of in the hobby). This species has rather pale males with minimal pronotum markings, and little to no dark mottling on the tegmina. The females are reddish in color, again with little to no patterning. They seem to prefer a more inorganic substrate mix, so I have mine set up on play sand, and they seem to be doing well.

I've got them housed in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch and a half of sand at the bottom, keeping one third of the substrate moist, the rest dry. I'm feeding them leaf litter and dog food, and have them at around 75-80F°. 

Here are some pictures of an adult pair:

Male

Female




So far they're doing well for me and breeding, so fingers crossed we get these well established in the hobby!

My Eublaberus cf. posticus "French Guiana" have finally started to mature, and boy are they pretty! 😍 The patterning of the pronotums is very variable, one thing that does seem to be a bit consistent though is that males tend to have darker tegmina, whereas the female tegmina are lighter.

Here are some pictures of a pair:











Fingers crossed they'll breed well for me, the females are already looking rather plump!

I was lucky enough to get my hands on groups of both Schizopilia fissicollis and Capucina patula again this Fall (my last attempt with those species ended in failure, as they got pesticide poisoning, along with a lot of other species in my collection).

I've got both species housed in moderately ventilated 5 gallon gasket tubs with coco coir chunks substrate, topped with a bunch of vertically slanted cork bark. It would appear neither species actually requires extremely flat bark, good old cork bark pieces are all that's necessary (and is what most EU breeders keep theirs on).
I'm keeping both species semi-humid, the Schizopilia seems to be able to handle higher humidity, but don't like very moist conditions. Whereas the Capucina like it a bit more on the dry side.

I took pictures of adult Capucina last time I tried them, but never got to photograph adult Schizopilia, until now! Here's a pair of the S.fissicollis:















The pronotum morphology on this species is insane! 😍 Such a unique and pretty species, and one that seems to be doing rather well for me. I have a pretty even sex ratio in my Schizopilia culture, whereas the Capucina were very male heavy. I have adults of both sexes in both species now though, so should be a matter of time until I see some breeding action from them!

Lastly, my Archimandrita tesselata have not only matured over the Summer, but have produced offspring of their own. These are such large and pretty roaches, and I finally got around to getting pictures of one of my mature females.

Here she is:









A very nice hobby staple, there's a reason they've stuck around in culture as long as they have. 😁

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

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

White Out Titans & New Roaches!

Just did a trade with Maxwell Wolfgang of PA Pods, and can't be happier with what I received! 😊

First off, the main attraction in this trade, a group of Porcellio hoffmannseggi "White Out"! 😄 Maxwell isolated these himself from his normal hoffmannseggi colony, and man what a neat morph to have in such a large and hardy isopod species. 😍 They look stunning already, can't wait to see them full grown!

I have mine in a typical Spanish Porcellio setup, a well ventilated shoebox with an inch or so of coconut fiber substrate, topped with lots of leaf litter and some bark hides. Keeping a third of the substrate humid, the rest dry. Feeding them dog food in addition to the leaf litter. Also offering calcium carbonate, which while not absolutely necessary, does seem to be appreciated by a lot of the Spanish Porcellio spp. and may attribute to a larger maximum size (my P.magnificus and P.expansus love it). Keeping them at around 75F°.

Here are some pictures of the beauties:












Such a pretty morph, hopefully they'll breed as well for me as normal hoffmannseggi have.

I also got some Archimandrita tesselata nymphs, the "Peppered Roach". They are still relatively small nymphs, so I won't really bother with pictures yet, but I'm excited to be working with this very large hobby staple. 😀 

I have them set up in a large, moderately ventilated container with a few inches of coconut fiber substrate with some leaf litter mixed in. No hides yet but once they get closer to maturity I'll add a bunch of vertically slanted bark hides for them to molt to adulthood off of. Keeping them humid, and at around 75-80F°. Feeding them dog food and fruits.

Lastly I got some Therea olegrandjeani nymphs, "Question Mark Roaches". So now I have pure stock of all three US hobby Therea spp., which is important because I'm seeing an alarming increase in the amount of Therea hybrids popping up and being sold in the hobby lately. 😮‍💨 So I'm glad I've now got all three back in my collection.

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