Mo Trades Mo Problems

Well, if by problems, you mean more mouths to feed, then I guess you could say so. Otherwise I'm actually pretty happy with all of these transactions, just wantedto make an Office reference. 😆 

Anyways, I did a trade with Satchell some months ago for a couple species of Tenebrionids from Alabama, which went quite smoothly.

First off, we got Asiopus minimus. A relatively small species (adults can grow a litttle over a cm long) that I'd not asked for, and came as a freebie surprise. These have proven rather fast and easy breeders, though they arrive not terribly prolific.

I have mine housed in a well ventilated enclosure with a layer of coco fiber at the bottom, topped with eggcrate pieces and leaf litter. I'm keeping a third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and they're at around 75F°. I'm using dog food as the staple diet.

Here are some pictures of a few adults:

Teneral adult

Definitely a cute little species, and a pleasant surprise addition to this trade.

The main creature I'd requested however, was Gondwanocrypticus. I have fond memories of catching and attempting to keep these beetles as a kid when I lived in Florida, and have been wanting to culture them seriously again now that I'm more experienced. Thankfully Satchell delivered, and found me a group of Gondwanocrypticus cf. platensis. These are diminutive, fast moving and rather short lived darklings, but they are thankfully rather easy to breed.

I have mine in a well ventilated enclosure with a layer of coco fiber and sand substrate (about a 50/50 mix), keeping a third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry. I'm offering dog food as the staple diet, and have them at around 75-80F°. 

Here are some pictures of the adults:

These are not especially prolific, but are pretty fast growing. Larvae are pale and wirey, and very inconspicuous. I'm happy to have this genus in my collection, a small piece of my childhood in a shoebox. 😊

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Next up, my local friend Sarah was kind enough to gift me a culture of an Armadillidium vulgare project she's been working on and has finished refining. The locality is Kuna, Idaho, and the morph/line name she has chosen is "Basalt & Sunflower". This line throws a pretty even mix of dark grey individuals (the "Basalt"), and then very high yellow individuals ("Sunflower"). There some pale intergrades as well, but overall the color ratios are pretty dang consistent (and very far removed from any of the wild type vulgare from this area I've ever seen).

Here are a few pics of them:

A very nice strain, to me they seem like the perfect A.vulgare equivalent of Porcellionides cf. virgatus "BPK".

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I recently traded Carlos Michaelsen of Tropical Isopods for some Dendrochernes sp. "Union Trails, FL", a very small and nicely patterned species of Pseudoscorpion. Unfortunately some of them escaped from their deli cup through the ventilation holes, and at least a couple perished as a result. I would like to stress that this was not Carlos' fault, he truly did not think they would be able to squeeze out of the ventilation holes he had poked (it can be hard to gauge their size, since their pedipalps make them look larger than they actually are).

In any case, what I was left with should be enough to establish a culture, I believe I have at least 1 or two pairs in there. 

I have them in my typical Pseudoscorpion setup, a moderately ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coconut fiber at the bottom, topped with several inches of coco coir chunks and bark pieces. I'm keeping a third of the setup humid, the rest dry. They're being fed oribatid mites and springtails, and I'm keeping them at around 75-80F°.

Here are some photos of a couple adults:

A very cute and unique addition to the hobby, hopefully they'll breed well for me!

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Lastly, I traded for a group of Coelus ciliatus from KiwiAustros on Discord. I've been itching to get this species back in my collection, and hopefully I can spread them around in culture this time around! 

I have them in a well ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of play sand substrate, topped with a bit of leaf litter. I'm keeping a third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and have them at around 75F°. I'm feeding them dog food, in addition to the leaf litter.

Here are some pictures of the adults:

This Montara locality looks a little different than the old Santa Barbara locality I used to keep, but I'm fairly confident in the ID, and this species is known to be rather variable in morphology across it's wide range.

They've already started producing larvae, so looks like I'm well on my way to establishing a colony!

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

Coelus & Porcellio Updates, & a Look at My Collection

My Coelus ciliatus are doing great, and apparently can pupate in the same enclosure as each other rather successfully, as long as deep enough substrate is provided, with a moist area in the enclosure. Lots of new teneral adults have been popping up in my main enclosure, which is nice! Lots of adults and larvae in the enclosure right now, these guys are quite easy to care for!

Here are a couple pictures I took of a few of my adults, (and a larva):

When I first got this species, I did not expect they would do so well in captivity, I am glad I was wrong! 😊 They seem very easy to keep, like Coniontis, wish that Eusattus were as easy to breed...

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I have some good and bad news about my Porcellio silvestrii. Good news, my pregnant female gave birth to a dozen or so mancae! Bad news, all my other females and one of my males have died. 😭

I really don't know what went wrong, the dead females all seemed to be fully intact, so it does not seem territorial cannibalism or any malnutrition is to blame, they had a corner kept moist at all times, so I doubt that lack of humidity was the problem, (however, two of the females died in the moist corner...), and I'm pretty sure they had enough hiding places as well. The male had his uropods and part of his face chewed off, and he was the runt of the males, so I'm pretty sure that was territorial cannibalism, which happens sometimes with the Spanish species.

The temperatures have risen a little bit in the past couple weeks, so maybe that could have caused the deaths, I would have expected that they would all have died if the temps got too high though. Plus, there are some Oniscus asellus enclosures right above them, that species is really sensitive to high temperatures, and I haven't noticed any die off in their enclosures. Oddly enough, the other females never got gravid in my care, the only one that survived is that one that was gravid, so maybe they had some weird illness from the get go, still doesn't seem right though.

Overall, I'm pretty stumped, no idea why they all died off like that. I removed three of the males from the main enclosure, leaving just one male in with the last female, as I don't want them to stress her out too much. Just thought I'd let you know how things were going with them.

On the plus side, while looking through the P.silvestrii enclosure, I found a young Porcellio scaber with unusual coloration! Hopefully it retains the white patches by it's rear when it matures, and hopefully it'll produce similar looking offspring once I mate it with a normal individual, (since that's what it's gonna have to come down to, as I can' find any others that look like it).

Here are a couple pictures of it:

Hopefully I'll be able to isolate this morph, it's quite an attractive individual!

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My collection has grown quite a bit in the last few months, so I thought I would take some pictures of my "bug closet", just to show you guys what it looks like now!

Here it is, in all it's glory!:

Really pushing the limits as to how many containers my shelves can hold! 😄

Anyway, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope you all enjoyed, got some new invertebrates coming this week, so stay tuned for some new posts about them! See you all soon! 🙂

A Couple of Darkling Beetle Updates

My Coelus ciliatus are doing pretty well, they have been laying quite a few new eggs, and I have been rearing lots of the older larvae to adulthood. What's cool about these guys is that, when the adult ecloses and darkens up into an orange-ish color, it burrows up to the surface and wanders around the deli cup, making it easy to both find which ones have matured and to remove them. This species really likes leaf litter BTW, seems they prefer it over dog food!

Here is are some pictures of a newly emerged adult and it's "emergence" hole:

And here are a couple of other teneral adults:

Glad this species has been doing so well for me, I hope I'll get the chance to work with other species from this genus one day!

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My Eleodes clavicornis have also been doing very well, I started with a single pair, and now I have over a dozen adults, which have been producing their own larvae too. They have not proven to be a prolific species, but they can definitely be bred over multiple generations in captivity without too much trouble.

Here are some pics I took of the adults today:

It's a very cute little species of Eleodes, one that certainly deserves a spot in any Tenebrionid enthusiast's collection!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)