Magnificent Emeralds, Pseudoglomeris magnifica!

I've FINALLY got my hands on a small breeding group of Pseudoglomeris magnifica "Cuc Phuong National Park, Vietnam", the OG hobby Magnificent Emerald Cockroach! 😁 So many different strains and localities in culture now, including various similar strains from Vietnam, and some different colored, diapause-needing Chinese strains as well. This species can vary a lot in coloration and also adult size depending on the locality, which is why knowing and keeping track of exactly what strain of magnifica you have is so important. The "Cuc Phuong" strain is perhaps the prettiest green strain of magnifica currently in the hobby, often throwing out individuals with a nice blue iridescent sheen over their base coloration of metallic green. This Vietnamese locality requires no diapause and also gets to a much larger size than most of the Chinese strains.

Thanks to my pal Alberto Marquez (AKA Junior) for trading me two large female nymphs, for a pre-sub/subadult male I already had that another buddy of mine sent me months prior. 😁 He also threw in an adult male of his own, just to be safe! Now I have all Pseuglomeris in the US hobby besides tarsalis (which I failed with mainly because I gave them the wrong type of hides). But hey, I have all the metallic ones in the US at least. 😂

I've got my trio of nymphs and adult male in a very well ventilated container with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, keeping one third humid, the rest dry. They have vertically slanted cottonwood bark for hides, and I'm feeding them dog food, pollen, and fruits. I'm keeping them at around 75-85F°.

Here are some pictures of these precious living emeralds:

Pre-sub/Sub male

Mature male

Subadult female

So pretty! 😍 Can't wait to see adult females of these beauties in person, and hopefully breed them successfully! 🤞😁 

While I'm on the subject of Pseuglomeris BTW, both my P.aerea and P.magnifica "Kunming, Yunnan, China" are doing great while in their Winter diapause, and the latter have actually been steadily growing and molting even in diapause. Most are now subadults and one of the females may even be mature, so should definitely get some breeding action right out of the gate once I break their diapause in a little over a month. 😄

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Junior also threw in a group of Drymaplaneta semivittata nymphs for me, since my colony crashed due to pesticide exposure months ago. This is much appreciated, and very generous of Junior, hopefully I can get another colony established in no time! 🤞 😁

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

Drymaplaneta & More Perisphaerus Babies!!!

Well, just found hatchlings in my Drymaplaneta semivittata enclosure, so that's awesome! 😁 There's quite a few ooths in there too, so fingers crossed I'll have a large culture established soon, and can then spread them around to fellow US hobbyists! 😄

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Also, found yet another brood born in my Perisphaerus sp. "Kota Kinabalu" enclosure!!! 😍 Not only that, but the nymphs from the second brood born recently are molting to L2s now, and they already all look healthier than the nymphs from that first brood I had, which was likely a stress induced birth. So yay, crisis averted with those, should have a good colony established here over the next year or so... 🤞

That's gonna do it for these short updates, will see y'all tomorrow with another new acquisition post! 😉

Return of Drymaplaneta & Deropeltis!

Nennips-Nebahcs Shipment Pt 2/5

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I'm so happy to announce that in this shipment, I got a group of Drymaplaneta semivittata, AKA the "Gisborne Cockroach"! 😁 ironic considering they aren't even native to New Zealand, but rather Australia... Similar to the "American Cockroach", Periplaneta americana being native to Africa. However, all captive cultures of D.semivittata come from invasive NZ populations, so it's not the worst common name. 🤷

Anyways, I'm glad to have this species again, I got rid of my healthy culture back in 2018 when I left the hobby, and while they persisted for about a year afterwards, they did eventually die out in US culture... Hopefully I'll be able to reestablish them easily enough, especially since I've got a good handle on their preferred conditions. 😅

I've got my ten or so individuals housed in a well ventilated gallon container with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate. I'm keeping them bone dry, with a moist corner, and warm (75-85F°). I'm offering eggcrates, leaf litter and paper towel rolls for hides. I'm feeding them dog food and fruits. My group is mostly adults, and I've already got several oothecae from them! 😁

Here are some pics of these pretty, underrated beauties:

Hopefully I'll have babies hatching out soon, this species can be rather prolific, so I'm sure I'll be offering babies back on the market in a few months. 😄

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I also received a small group of Deropeltis sp. "Masai Mara" that my friend Brandon bought, I decided not to buy any myself since I suck at breeding Deropeltis spp.... However, most of them were mated, adult females, and there were oothecae in their shipping container, plus they laid a couple in my temporary care before I sent them to Brandon. He actually let me keep a few of these ooths to try and hatch myself, so guess I'll be trying one more time with this species... 😅

I've put them in my Gyna bisannulata enclosure, on the substrate in between the dry side and moist side of their enclosure. It's warm in there, at least 75-80F°, and we'll ventilated too. So with any luck, I'll get some of them to hatch out, fingers crossed! 🤞 If not, I give up completely with Deropeltis. 😂

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

Drymaplaneta semivitta Hatchlings & a Asbolus verrucosus Update!

It's finally happened, one of my Drymaplaneta semivitta oothecae hatched! 😁 So happy that I finally have offspring of this species, hopefully many more will follow! Funnily enough, this particular ootheca had a small spot of mold growing along the opening seam a week ago, which I quickly wiped off, but I figured the mold was coming from inside of the ooth, which would have meant it was a dud. I decided to leave it be just in case, and I'm sure glad I did!

I was able to get a few pictures of the nymphs squeezing their way out of the ootheca, but was interrupted and had to leave before capturing the whole process. Here are the pictures I could get:

And here is one of them a couple days after hatching:

I am thrilled that I could successfully breed this species, things were looking bad for my colony for a while, but it looks like everything worked out in the end! 😊

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On the other hand, my three Asbolus verrucosus larvae apparently haven't been doing well in my care at all, I only have one left! 😞 Either their cage was too small and they resorted to cannibalism, I over-watered them (more likely IMO), or they don't like the food I have them. There's no hope for a future generation, that's for sure, I'd be surprised if I can get this last larvae to make it to adulthood! I'll definitely try my hardest though, I'm gonna keep the sand less moist, and may upgrade the larva's enclosure size soon too. 

Anyway, here are some pictures I took of the remaining larva:

At this age, it looks very similar to an Eleodes spp. larva. At a glance they look the same, the only noticeable difference being the unusual terminal segment, (which looks more odd in person). Hopefully I can get this last larva to mature, I will keep you all updated!

Anyway, that's gonna do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

Rare Roach Updates!

Some of my Anallacta methanoides are finally starting to mature! 😁 These have taken a lot longer to grow than I thought they would, the last couple molts especially were rather far apart! Oddly enough, most of the adults are males right now, hopefully some more females will start maturing soon, I really want to breed this species and get them established in the US hobby once again.

Here are some pictures of the first adult to mature:

Let's hope the rest of the nymphs mature with no problems, and that I get a ton of offspring from them!

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My Drymaplaneta semivitta are doing very well, I am up to at least five large oothecae now, (it was six, but they ate one of them recently for no reason). All of these large oothecae are nice and healthy looking, so with any luck I will have a ton of nymphs soon! Quite the comeback for my culture, which was on the verge of crashing completely! 😄

Here's a picture of a female in the process of laying yet another ootheca:

Hopefully I'll have some little nymphs running around the enclosure soon!

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So, after quite a bit of effort on my part, and one complete enclosure change, I was able to get my old Panchlora sp. "White" female to give birth to a small litter of nymphs! 😃 I haven't gotten a total head count, since I really don't want to disturb them too much, but I'm guessing there are less than a dozen total.

Here are some (rather poor) pictures of the cuties:

The female that gave birth to this litter looks like she's gonna die of old age soon, so my hope for more nymphs lies on my other two females, let's hope I can get them to reproduce too!

I am thinking about making a really nice enclosure, with lots of bark, dead leaves and New Zealand sphagnum moss incorporated into it, dumping all of my remaining individuals inside of it and just hoping for the best. It would be smaller than the gallon enclosure I had them in originally, sort of in between that and the cages they are in now in terms of size.

It would also have feeding areas on both sides of the enclosure, just in case the reason they were doing poorly in their original enclosure was because they couldn't find food consistently. I will also try to keep Sinella curviseta springtails out of the enclosure, and will only inoculate the enclosure with the small silver springtails, and maybe some small white ant springtails too. But we'll see, we'll see...

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One of my Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red" finally matured into an adult male, so now I have one adult pair! 😆 These things have taken FOREVER to grow, I was getting worried my female may die off before a male matured in time to mate with her! Luckily that was not the case, so hopefully they will mate and my female will lay lots of fertile ooths!

Here are some pictures of the male:

I like the way the males look even more than the females, since they have longer wings and more vibrant red coloration!

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Lastly, I am happy to say that one of my Eurycotis lixa matured the other day, I am pretty sure it is a male! This species is pretty large when mature, and they actually don't seem that bad for handling, the male rarely bit me when I held it, and didn't seem terribly skittish! (whereas I can't get my Eurycotis improcera to stay still for half a second!).

Here are some pictures of the adult male:

Note the slightly flattened, dented in hind legs, similar to the males of Drymaplanetta. The other four nymphs are all subadults too, and all look very plump, so I am pretty sure they will all be mature within a couple weeks! Let's hope I can breed them successfully! 🙂

Anyway, that's gonna do it for today, hope everyone enjoyed this post, will see you all next time! 😉