Less Than Happy Updates...

It's about that time again, time to tally up the losses in the collection over the last month or so. 😔

First off, my Myrmecoblatta wheeleri female finally kicked the bucket, I think... Noticed she was absent from the Macropanesthia enclosure on 6/17, so all in all she lived almost 8 months as an adult, impressive for such a small roach species, especially that I wasn't keeping optimally... Hope to try again with that species one day, but for now it's clear my attempt to breed Myrmecoblatta wheeleri has been a complete disaster.

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Secondly, I unfortunately am down to a single female Ceronopus concolor, and a single, probably male Trogloderus sp.... 

The C.concolor just kept dying over the winter, I don't think they are particularly long lived, either that or I just kept them horribly, though I don't know what I did wrong if so. 

Whereas for the Trogloderus, I'm pretty sure I accidentally murdered them... We had a bit of a heat wave recently, and I didn't expect my dryer enclosures to dry out completely as fast as they did during said heat wave, the lack of moisture and high heat seemed to kill 3 of my 4 Trogloderus, and one of my CB Cryptoglossa muricata adults too... Sad about the latter, but the biggest hit for me was the Trogloderus, as even though I had not been successful in getting any offspring from them thus far, my hopes of breeding them were completely dashed with that blunder of mine. 

Pretty bummed that I made such a bad error, but stuff like this happens sometimes I guess, I'm certainly being more careful not to let any of my other enclosures completely dry out like that again.

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My Hyporhicnoda sp. "reflexa" females have all passed away, sadly no offspring from any of them. In fact, absolutely none of them had ooths in them upon dying, and I never saw them abort ooths either, so I half wonder if they are semelparous and only produce one internal ootheca before dying. If so, they might have aborted their ooths long before I got them, and so I never had a chance at breeding them... It's the best theory I can come up with ATM, definitely a bummer for sure though.

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My last Hemithyrsocera vittata nymph matured a month or so ago, and it was a male... So I decided to try and put him to use, and put a subadult female H.palliata in with him, to see if these two species can hybridize, and what the babies would look like if so. I personally really doubt they can hybridize on account of how different the hatchlings (and even larger nymphs) of the two species are in terms of morphology, but why not put it to the test? 🙃

Well, a few days ago I found the male dead, partially eaten, and the H.palliata female was now mature. I'm hoping the male lasted long enough to at least possibly mate with the female, maybe he tried and afterwards kicked the bucket after using up that energy? Or perhaps the adults of these two species don't get along and will kill each other if housed together, (which might make sense considering their overlapping natural ranges, which is yet another reason I doubt they can actually hybridize). Basically, due to my uncertainty here, I won't be able to disprove that the two can hybridize, but I may be able to prove they can, if I find babies in the enclosure after a month or so... 

I'll keep you all updated on the little project, but I highly suspect the female will pass away and no babies will ever be created. If I DO get hybrid babies though, rest assured I won't be selling them and will use this info to prevent such hybrids being created by other people who just want to house these two species together for fun.

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Lastly, I have failed yet again at breeding Deropeltis... my sp. "Masai Mara" ooths all ended up being rotted inside, and I really don't know why. 😭 I kept them warm, kept them semi-humid (gave the adults a moisture gradient), and well ventilated, still I failed. Don't think these are getting established in the US, not from this batch at least, which really sucks. I pretty much give up on this genus, I evidently can't breed Deropeltis to save my life, which is a shame considering they are some of my all time favorite Blattids. 😔

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this bummer post, hope you found it informative at least, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time.

Bummer Beetle Updates

Let's start off with my Carabus nemoralis... Unfortunately, the one larva I found died shortly after I isolated it, I'm not 100% sure why, but I think pre-killed mealworms may not be an adequate food source for larvae of this species, they may actually need caterpillars. 😟 Either that, or it needed a winter diapause or something, IDK. 

Additionally, both my WC adults have hunkered down and appear to hibernating, with no signs of interest in food or in making more offspring. Honestly, I'm just not feeling it anymore with this species, after failing so bad with the few offspring I got, and me and Carabids don't go together so well historically... So I think I'm just gonna release the adults back where I found them, they'll probably be better off that way. 

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Secondly, sadly my female Nyctoporis carinata has passed away, and I didn't get any larvae from her... 😔 I only saw her lay a single egg, on top of the substrate in the driest part of the enclosure, and when I tried to move said egg to the moist area of the enclosure (since even desert Teneb eggs can rarely tolerate bone dry conditions for long, though coniontises tells me Nyctoporis are an exception), it essentially disintegrated to the touch. I think she was near the end of her life cycle by the time she was sent to me, and laid most of the eggs she had left in her in the care of coniontises.

Oh well, was interesting finally seeing an adult of this species in person nonetheless, sucks that I wasn't able to get any offspring from her, but I don't think there was much I could have done TBH. Was a neat little project nonetheless, and I appreciate that coniontises sent her to me in the first place. 😄

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Lastly, the first of my Cerenopus concolor adults has died, and a couple others have lost tarsi. I guess I got unlucky and got some older adults, either that, or the adults of this species just don't live that long. Or I guess my husbandry could be incorrect, but I don't know what I'd be doing wrong that would kill these adults prematurely. 🤔 

So far no signs of reproduction from these, which I kinda expected, I don't think any of the WC Tenebs I got after Summer are going to reproduce until Spring, that's kind of the norm I think. Even my CB Conibius and Blapstinus stopped breeding in late Fall. Once Spring hits, whatever Tenebs I've still got by then should start breeding again, really hoping the rest of my Ceronopus, my Asbolus, Iphthiminus, and Trogloderus make it until then.

Not the happiest post, but you know I gotta make these, can't have the good updates without the bad, they go hand in hand in this hobby. 🤷‍♂️ Anyways, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time.

Some Teneb Updates!

Alrighty, got a few misc Tenebrionidae updates for y'all, let's start with my Iphthiminus serratus.

Unfortunately I've only got two offspring left, most of the larvae made it to a large size but then slowly petered out, for some their substrate had degraded quite a bit, perhaps too much for them to feed on? It also appears like they prefer to have larger chunks of rotten wood to bore into, not just crushed substrate that's been compacted, and unfortunately I had most of them on a pretty well crushed substrate. Also, I think I kept them too cool, as they seem to be doing better now that I've got them warmer... 

However, the last two larvae have been doing great, and one of them actually just pupated! 😁 So fingers crossed it ecloses successfully! 🤞 I haven't dug the pupa out of it's cell, just because I didn't want to risk it molting into a deformed adult as a result. 

Anyways, here are some pics of the pupa through the side of it's deli cup:

Looks like a standard Teneb pupa to me, almost like a mix between an Eleodes and a Zophobas pupa. 

The other larva also looks healthy and may pupate soon too, and all five of the original WC adults are still alive and well, so I should be able to get another generation going in the Spring I hope! Next time I'll try to isolate more larvae early on, and will use bigger chunks of rotten pine for them as well. 

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And now for a quick update on my Eleodes (Blapylis) sp. "ID", I actually released them like last month, to make room for the Tenebs I got from BIC. I documented the pupa of this species this go around though, and sold some to another breeder, so I'm pretty happy about that, maybe I'll keep them again one day, we'll see, but for now I needed the room, and didn't need to be keeping this particular species.

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Lastly, just thought I'd share an interesting observation on my Ceronopus concolor. Mine have made little semi permanent burrows in the sand on the humid side of their enclosure! They keep re-using the same burrows, and will even drag food down into them, pretty cool!

Here are some pics of one of the burrows:

I did partially bury the cardboard tubes in their setup, and so now some of them are using those as their little "burrows", which is good because I don't know how stable their other burrows really are, (even though I greatly increased the substrate depth for them), especially after I water the humid side of their enclosure.

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, thanks for reading, I hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

New Oddball Tenebs From BIC!

Now, while the Macropanesthia were definitely the most exciting species I just got from Peter of Bugsincyberspace, thanks to winning some store credit via the contests on his YouTube channel, I was also able to get a few awesome Tenebrionid species, which I'll be showing off in today's post! 😁

First off, let's start with the oddest of allest, Ceronopus concolor! This species is pretty unique looking, and I've never ever seen them available in the hobby before, nor do I think anyone's bred them before! So obviously I thought I'd give it a try. 😜 Peter sent me five individuals, when I'd only asked for a couple, so hopefully I've definitely got at least one pair in this group!

This odd, medium sized darkling beetle is surprisingly in the subfamily Tenebrioninae, which I find strange, since most of the really weird looking Teneb genera in the US are in the subfamily Pimeliinae, (at least, the ones I consider weird looking). Hopefully though this means this species won't actually be all that hard to breed, as I've had much better luck overall with a wider variety of genera in the subfamily Tenebrioninae than those in Pimellinae, which often have husbandry needs just as weird as their looks... 😅

I'm keeping them in a well ventilated enclosure with a sand based substrate, with one third of the enclosure kept moist, the rest bone dry. I'll be feeding them chick feed and probably the occasional apple slice. With any luck they'll lay eggs in this setup, and then we can see how hard it is to rear the larvae, what they look like, etc. 😁

Here are some pictures of them:

Really hoping I've got at least one female, guess we'll find out soon enough! 😅

I'll be sure to keep you all posted on this little project, I could be the first to breed this species, we'll see!

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Speaking of potentially being the first to breed a species, I figured I'd try another species seemingly no one's ever successfully bred, or at least tried seriously to breed, Asbolus laevis, the smooth black death feigning beetle! This species is less commonly available than it's popular relative A.verrucosus, the blue death feigning beetle, and thus they are less commonly kept, but I think breeding them should be very similar to breeding the BDFBs.

I asked for a pair of them, but Peter was kind enough to send two suspected pairs, to help ensure I had a chance of breeding them! 😁 I have them set up in a well ventilated container with an inch or so of sand as the substrate, and I'm keeping one half of the enclosure moist, the rest dry. They have cardboard tubes for hides, and I'll be feeding them chick feed and possibly pre-killed Eleodes larvae, (Asbolus LOVE to eat other invertebrates, usually dead or dying ones, and offering them that type of food may help with breeding and rearing the larvae up).

Here are some pictures of them:

Hope they lay some eggs here soon, Asbolus larvae are unfortunately quite cannibalistic, and thus once they start hatching I will have to separate them, and I'll probably offer them live Eleodes larvae to feed on when they're big enough to take prey down...

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Lastly, Peter sent me several individuals of a neat little Tenebrionid genus, Trogloderus! 😁 This is an obscure little genus, somewhat rarely sighted or kept, and in fact the immature stages have never been documented! 

I've kept two adults of this genus before, a smaller, less impressive Idaho native species, but alas, I believe they were both males, and I never got any offspring. This species I just got from Peter I think was collected in CA, but I could be wrong... In any case, it's a very impressive, if diminutive looking Tenebrionid! 

I have my four set up in a small, well ventilated enclosure with a sand substrate, I'll keep a third or so of it moist, the rest bone dry. I have cardboard tubs in there for hides. I'll offer chick feed and maybe the occasional fruit slice as foods, as well as leaf litter for any potential larvae. 

Here are some pictures of these interesting little beetles! 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, stay distanced, and I'll see you all next time! 😉