Dipteretrum Adults & Disappointing Hormetica/Cubaris News...

Well, while I stated in my recent post about this species that none of my females seemed close to maturing, either I missed a large female nymph, or they grow super fast, because I now have an adult female Dipteretrum hanstroemi! 😁 

The females of this species are way prettier than I thought, with beautiful red tones on their thoracic segments, with little ornate black markings overlaying the red. They also sport jet black abdomens, and stripey legs. Overall, quite a pretty species as adults! 😍

Here are some pics, both of the adult female alone, and her side by side with a male for comparison:

Adult female

Adult pair

The sexual dimorphism is strong in this species! 😂 Hopefully I'll be seeing babies in there soon!

BTW, I noticed several of the individuals in my colony had issues with their antennae. It's almost like they would lose all strength halfway down their antennae, and so they'd look all bent all the time. No entomophagous fungi or anything growing on them though, and the roaches seem perfectly healthy otherwise. But after doing some research I found that weak/short antennae is a common problem with this species in captivity.

Alan Jeon tells me this is actually humidity related, if humidity is too high they get these antennae problem. I already knew this species liked it quite dry, and mine always hand out in the driest parts of their enclosure. Guess I just need to dry it out more for them, which should be easy. Then hopefully that antennae issue will go away.

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Now to the bad news... it is with a heavy heart that I announce both my Hormetica strumosa females have died, before giving birth to any offspring. 😭 Not quite sure what happened, they just got old and battered looking, and just never gave birth... All that's left is one of my males, who's looking like he'll kick the bucket any day now. This species might require rotten wood substrate to do well in captivity, perhaps more specific temps as well, not sure. In any case, this really sucks, hopefully my few friends in the US who have been breeding this species continue to have success and get them established here in the hobby. 🤞

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Lastly, for some reason I found my sole Cubaris sp. "Surat Thani - Orange Tiger" female and all her mancae dead in their enclosure... I get the feeling they may need dryer or at least more well ventilated conditions than I offered them, and may have been stressed by the mold blooms in their enclosure due to all the new bark I put in there. Additionally, the female may also have been stressed by having two males twice her size in the enclosure with her, perhaps they were constantly trying to mate with her, as a result of her being the only female in that enclosure. 🤷 What a shame, as this was the Cubaris/Nesodillo species I was most excited about having in my collection. Oh well, hopefully I'll get them again one day, at the very least all my other Cubaris/Nesodillo spp. are doing well. 🙂

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

New Dipteretrum & the Return of Pseudomops!

Magnificent Beasts 2021 Package Series Pt. 3/7

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Got two Ectobiids to cover in this post, one of which I've never kept before, and one is a much more familiar face...

Let's start off with the newbies, Dipteretrum hanstroemi, AKA "Hanström's Little Runners"! 😁 This small African species is similar to some North American Parcoblatta spp. in several morphological respects, however unlike Parcoblatta, the nymphs can climb. 😅 

I've got my dozen or so individuals housed in a small, well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. For hides I'm using bark and leaf litter. I'm keeping a corner of the enclosure humid, the rest pretty dry. They're being kept warm, about 75-85F°, and for food I'm using dog food and the occasional bit of fruit.

Sadly my two largest nymphs were subadult males, with no large female nymphs in sight, so I'll be waiting a while for the smaller nymphs to mature for actual breeding action. 

However, both of the subadult males have matured, so I can at least show off an adult male. 😄 While adult males are fully winged, females look a lot different and have very tiny vestigial wings (similar to the sexual dimorphism of many Parcoblatta spp.).

Here are those pictures:

Subadult nymphs

Adult male

This species is rather underrated IMO, they've been in US culture for years now, but hardly anyone keeps them, let alone offers them for sale. Hopefully I can help change that by breeding them and then posting them for sale regularly. 🙂

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Now onto the familiar face... When I left the hobby, I entrusted Brandon with the bulk of my Pseudomops septentrionalis "San Antonio, TX" colony. While they've had their ups and downs for him, he's kept them going this whole time, and he's just sent me back a starter colony, so I can breed them once again! 😁

A lot of people have difficulty breeding this species long term for whatever reason, but this strain's being going strong since it was initially collected for me by my friend Erin in 2016. I've always found them pretty dang easy to breed, only difficult part can be getting pairs to mature in sync when starting with small numbers of nymphs, since they tend to mature at very staggered rates.

Lucky me though, I received several subadults about to molt by chance in this group, and several of them have matured already! 😁

I've got mine set up in a moderately ventilated gallon container, with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. For hides I'm using bark and eggcrates, and I'm keeping them humid and fairly warm (75F° or so). For food I'm using dog food, fruits and pollen.

Here are some pics of one of the females:

A very nice species, and fairly popular in the hobby. Supply can be kinda sporadic with this species, so hopefully I can help make them a bit more consistently available in the future. 😄

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