Eleodes, Eurycotis & Pystalla Updates!

Well, it looks like I've been able to successfully pupate three E.acuticaudus larvae, in addition to the one that matured. So hopefully I can get all three to eclose properly, and maybe get a pair or two, fingers crossed! 🤞

Here is a picture of a pupa:

Will keep you all updated on them!

---

The other day while checking on my Eurycotis lixa colony, I found several 1st instar nymphs in the enclosure! 🙂 Took around 4 months for this first ootheca to hatch, but I just moved them right next to my heat cable a few days ago, so I'm sure they would have started hatching out sooner had I kept them warmer, (incubation for this species is only supposed to take around 3 months).

Here are some pictures of the cuties:

I find it rather ironic how the young nymphs of this species are so light colored, meanwhile the first few instars of E.improcera are normally jet black...

---

Lastly, I've been getting a TON of eggs from my Psytalla horrida, I'm going to have my own little army of assassin bugs soon! 😊

Here are a couple pics of the eggs:

Will be sure to let you all know as soon as the first eggs start hatching!

Well, that does it for today's post, thanks for reading everyone, 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!

---

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!

---

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...

---

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!

---

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! 😉

Click Beetles & Roaches

The last adult from my original Pyrophorus noctilucus trio has fully hardened and is now active!! 😁(Actually it emerged from it's pupal cell on the 18th, but it's just taken me this long to get around to posting about it). This last adult was the largest so far, at about 28 mm. Here's hoping I'll be getting some offspring from them soon!

I took photos of the two largest individuals next to my Alaus melanops, here they are:

And I also made a video of all three of my Pyrophorus adults together:

My other two Pyrophorus grubs are still doing well, I am having a few grain mite problems though, for some reason grain mites LOVE their enclosures, but leave my other Elaterid larvae deli cups alone. 😕

Gonna have to lower the amount of chick feed I give them and replace it with mealworms for a while, since there won't be as much leftovers with just mealworms, and the mites seem a little more attracted to old grain products than insect bodies.

---

My Arenivaga floridensis males are all starting to mature, unfortunately the pre-subadult females don't seem like they will mature in time for these males to mate with them. 😟 Oh well, there are plenty of other smaller nymphs, several of which are likely males, so I'll definitely have pairs matched up at one point.

Here are some pictures of one of the adult males:

The males of this morph look very nice! 😃 Can't wait until the females start maturing too!

---

My Eurycotis lixa are doing very nicely, and have grown quite a bit since I got them! (they are definitely slower growing than E.improcera though). They have all developed the jet black coloration that is characteristic of this species, they are quite beautiful now! 😍

Here are some pictures of them:

I am excited to see just how big they'll get, they are supposed to be quite a bit larger than E.improcera, which is one of the smallest Eurycotis species in the hobby.

Well, that's going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all soon! 😉

New Roaches From Alan Jeon!!!

Yesterday I received a package from Alan Jeon, I ordered a group of Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red", a beautiful new strain of the Dark Woods Roach, (or "Sexy Legs Roach", as Kyle like to call them) that he has been working on, and a group of Gyna cafforum, a nice species of Gyna that's been on my wishlist for a while now! In addition to sending healthy over counts of both species, he also sent me a few Eurycotis lixa nymphs and a trio of Latiblattella lucifrons adults as a surprise! 😁

Let's start off with the Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red". Normal strains of I.deropeltiformis have black wings as adults, this strain however, has adults with dark red wings, which go nicely with the characteristic red legs of this species!

I have them housed in a medium sized plastic container with moist coconut fiber as the substrate, and lots of little bark pieces on top of that, since they apparently don't like to walk on bare substrate. Additionally I have lots of leaf litter and some egg cartons for them to hide in. I will be feeding them mostly dog/cat food.

Here are some pictures of the nymphs:

Really look forward to seeing what the adults look like in person, can't wait until my nymphs mature!

---

Next up, the Gyna caffrorum! You can never have too many Gyna, and this species, the "Chrome roach", or "Ghost Porcelain Roach", is a very pretty member of the genus! The nymphs look very similar to G.lurida nymphs, and the adults have a very nice white and bluish-grey coloration, with a little bit of black too.

Alan was very generous with the amount he sent, giving me a large overcount on this species, which I really appreciate! 😊

I have them in a medium sized plastic container with a couple inches of moist coconut fiber and lots of leaf litter on top. Will be feeding them the usual dog food, fruits and veggies, along with the dead leaves.

Here are some pictures of them:

Nymph

Adult female

Glad to have this beautiful species in my collection, I'm really loving this genus! I hope to try my hand at the more difficult species soon!

---

Alan also sent a few small Eurycotis lixa nymphs, a nice species that is relatively new to the hobby! The adults are jet black, and have very tiny, vestigial wings. This species is known for being pretty territorial, and will fight for food aggressively, as well as eat their own ooths under less than perfect conditions. So I will definitely be trying to keep my culture pretty small, once they get going and start breeding, I will probably sell off quite a bit of the offspring to keep the culture small and at a manageable size.

I am keeping them in a medium sized plastic container with semi-moist coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark slabs, dead leaves, and paper towel rolls as hides. I plan on keeping much of the enclosure dry, with some humid retreats for them, and will feed them mostly dog food.

Here are the two photos I was able to get of the nymphs, they are really fast, can climb well, and definitely don't like getting their pictures taken, so these were all I could get:

Can't wait until these mature!

---

Last, but certainly not least, Alan sent two adult females and one male Latiblattella lucifrons! 😆 This species is very high up on my Ectobiid wishlist, and I am thrilled to have some in my collection! These are the F1 offspring produced from a female Alan caught in Arizona last year, so far it seems the species is not too difficult to breed in captivity!

I have mine housed in a small container with coconut fiber as the substrate, with bark pieces and dead leaves as hides. Will be keeping the enclosure semi-moist, and will feed them mostly dog food, might offer apple pieces from time to time as well, since L.rheni really seem to like those.

Here are a couple pictures of the females, they really don't like to stay still for photographs at all:

The adult females look like giant Cariblatta minima with broader pronotums! I really hope they'll breed for me, I've already seen them mating, (and I hardly EVER see my roaches mate), so that's certainly a good sign! If all goes well, they should start laying oothecae very soon, and with any luck, those will hatch several weeks later, we'll see! 🙂

Anyway, that's gonna be it for this post, today I actually received a package from another friend, so will be posting about that in a couple days! So stay tuned, will see you all soon! 😉