May's Ups & Downs

Got some ups and downs that happened this month that I figured I'd post here before June, in between more positive posts. 😄

Let's start with some sad springtail updates. So first off, my Willowsia nigromaculata have become thoroughly infested with Willowsia sp. "Kota Kinabalu"... Which is very unfortunate. I honestly don't know that I'll be able to salvage enough of the nigromaculata to establish a colony again, but I'll do my best.

Secondly, my black Isotomidae from Boise just never took off, and I can't collect them again, so that project is dead in the water. 😢

Thirdly, my Orchesella cincta colony has all but collapsed, mainly due to predatory mites. I then moved my remaining individuals to a smaller deli cup, but didn't give them enough airflow, so despite them doing OK initially and breeding in that setup, one over watering was all it took to bring their numbers back down to half a dozen mixed sizes.

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Next up, a more positive update. One of my Gromphadorhina portentosa "LLE Mahogany" females gave birth to a good sized litter! 😁 Said babies are doing quite well and have molted to L2 already.

Weirdly one of the larger females aborted her entire ooth shortly afterwards, and I'm not sure why... 🤔 But in any case most of the females seem super gravid and will probably give birth soon as well, so no big loss there (already they give birth to so many babies per brood! 😅).

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Now for another sour update, this time about one of my darklings... Unfortunately I've completely failed with Doyenellus cisteloides. 😭 

I gave them a coconut fiber substrate, which the females did eagerly lay in, and I got lots of tiny larvae from them. However, the larvae died very shortly after hatching, and I'm pretty sure they actually needed a rotten wood substrate to survive... Mixing in a bit of rotten wood into the top layer of coconut fiber after I realized this was not enough, and all the offspring sadly perished. Not only that, but all the adults died off too, seemingly of natural causes (I'm pretty sure Helopini live rather short adult lives in general). So, quite a bad mistake on my part, but at least I know better for working with this tribe in the future. 🙁

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Another downer update, though not as irreparable as the former. My Nocticola sp. "Malaysia" colony crashed... Because the Coecobrya sp. "Tropical Pink" (ex. Sinella curviseta) that got into their bin outcompeted and essentially wiped them OUT. 🙃 So that's fun. Thankfully there were still some Nocticola in there, so I've isolated them to start a new culture. But yeah it's gonna take a little while to get them going again, and now I have to be diligent not to let springtail populations get too high for them. The joys of roach keeping lol.

But I think that does it for the misc May updates I have that don't warrant pictures being taken. So, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed and learned from this post, stay safe, and I'll see y'all next time! 😉

A Couple New Darklings!

Alan Spring 2022 Package Series Pt. 2/3

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One of the more interesting new Tenebs I've gotten this year have to be these metallic copper-green Doyenellus cisteloides "Bartram Trail, AL" that Alan sent me. These are the first members of the Helopini I've ever kept, and a good practice species for me, since they're quite closely related to one of my most wanted US Tenebrionidae, Tarpela micans. 😁 Ideally these Doyenellus should have the same care as Tarpela, so hopefully I can crack the code to breeding them with ease!

I've got my several adult pairs housed in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coconut fiber as the substrate. They have vertically slanted bark hides, and I'm keeping them humid and at around 75F°. I'm offering dog food, apple slices and banana (they seem to greatly prefer the latter).

Here are some pictures of the adults:

Female

Male

Pretty sure I've seen one of the females ovipositing already, so with any luck I'll start seeing larvae soon! Hopefully they're easy enough to rear! 😁

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Alan also sent me some Zophobas atratus larvae, but these aren't your run of the mill hobby stock Zophobas, these are from a wild strain collected from the Sugarloaf Key, FL. The Zophobas established in far southern FL appear to be distinct from the hobby line of Z.atratus, and were probably introduced down there from a completely different locale than the hobby feeder stock comes from, perhaps in a shipment of plants/produce many many years ago, before we even used superworms commonly as feeders.

These FL Zophobas have much more noticable elytral striations, and perhaps slightly broader pronotum margins. The larvae of this strain also appear to be a bit paler than hobby stock superworms, the patterning might be a tad different too.

According to Tenebrionidae taxonomist Andrew Johnston, these are almost certainly Z.atratus, just a different locality and phenotype than the feeder hobby stock we're all used to seeing in culture. I think these are pretty interesting and it'll be nice to have another phenotype of Z.atratus in culture, hopefully these will catch on in the hobby among enthusiasts and not be immediately bastardized and mixed with the old hobby stock. 😅🙃

I've got my larvae in a well ventilated enclosure with an inch or so of coconut fiber, half of it kept humid, the other half dry. I'm feeding them dog food and carrots, and keeping them at around 75F°.

Here are a few pics of some larvae:

Looking forward to rearing up some adults and seeing how unique they look in person! 🙂

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