Obsidian Hissers & More Updates!

I am happy to announce that one of my hisser morph projects has proven out, namely Princisia vanwaerebeki "Obsidian". 😁

This is a melanistic morph isolated from the Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big/Black - CCR 2017 Stock" line. That line commonly throws out darker individuals, but seldom ones without any red spots on the thoracic pads, or at least some very faint patterning on the abdominal margins. This "Obsidian" morph I've isolated sports completely black adults, with no other patterning. 

Here are some pictures of an adult pair:

Hopefully these will be a popular morph! I am working on another project with this species, line breeding for the opposite coloration; the most abdominal striping and thoracic patterning possible. However that will probably take a lot longer to isolate to a level that I'm satisfied with. 😅

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Next up, my Miogryllus saussurei have been doing alright, I realized I never got any pictures of adults though.

So without further delay, here's an adult female:

A cute little species that loves burrowing, hopefully I can make them more readily available in the future, especially seeing as I just rehoused them to a larger enclosure.

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My Hyporhicnoda sp. "Venezuela" have not only matured successfully, but have bred for me as well! Seems the key is to just keep them very moist, with a deep substrate.

Here are some pictures of an adult pair:

Male

Female

Hopefully we can finally get these established in the US hobby, would be nice for more of these South American species to be better established here.

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Due to some unusual circumstances, last month or so I ended up with 4 adult females of Pseudoglomeris semisulcata. Unfortunately there were no males included, however if they were wild caught as adults (and I assume they were), then there's a nonzero chance that they're mated and could potentially produce offspring. Time will tell, but in the meantime I've set them up in their own enclosure with the hopes of getting lucky.

They are housed in a well ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coconut fiber topped with coco coir chunks as the substrate. They have some hardwood and cork bark hides, and I'm keeping one third of the setup humid, the rest dry. These are one of three species in the alpine subgenus Glomerexis, and as such I'm keeping them at a cool 70-75F° (I would have provided a diapause but I believe they were already given a pretty harsh one prior to arriving to me). I'm feeding them dog food, artificial pollen, and fresh fruits.

Here are some pictures of one of the larger females:

I really hope I luck out with these, time will tell! 🤞  

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My current batch of Phortioeca sp. "Tena, Ecuador" have started to mature, which I'm very excited about! Hopefully I will be successful in breeding them this time, fingers crossed!

Here are some pictures of a large adult female I took the other day:

Such a beauty, Zetoborinae in general have to be one of my favorite roach subfamilies out there!

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Lastly, my Princisia vanwaerebeki "Tiger" are doing phenomenally, seems they like it a lot more humid than most other hissers. 

Anyways, I took pictures of one of my larger males the other day, which I figured I'd share here:

Such a pretty and underrated species, wish more people kept these!

Well, that does it for today's post! Thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see y'all next time! 😉 

Lotsa New Roaches!

A few months ago I received a box with a bunch of new roaches, most of which were new for the US hobby (or had died out here). I'm SO behind on blog posts it's not even funny, but I'm glad to finally be covering these new additions. 😀

First off, I received about 7 nymphs of Deropeltis sp. "Tsavo West, Kenya - Big". A species rather similar in appearance to sp. "Masai Mara", but supposedly larger (and IMO the nymphs are more colorful). With numbers that low, and since I'm not the best with this genus, I sent them straight away to my buddy Brandon Maines at Magnificent Beasts, who's much better at breeding Deropeltis than I. So hopefully he can get them going, and then I'll just get a group off of him. 😄 

Anyways, here are some pictures of one of the nymphs:

Hopefully we can get these established in the US hobby, and add another Deropeltis to the roster here!

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I also received a group of Hyporhicnoda sp. "Venezuela" (traded as "H.reflexa" in the EU hobby, but they are definitely not that species, you can read more about that here). Again this is a species I'm not super confident about breeding based on my past failure to do so, so I sent half of mine to Ty Randall at Ty Dye Exotics, who's bred the similar Hyporhicnoda litomorpha successfully. So one way or another, these should be getting established here in the states.

I've got mine housed in a moderately ventilated enclosure with several inches of coconut fiber substrate, which I'm keeping very moist. I'm offering dog food and fruits as the staple diet, and keeping them at around 75F°.

Here are a few pictures of some large nymphs:

Looking forward to seeing these mature, and hopefully succeeding in breeding them!

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Now for a species I was actually confident in breeding, Tagaloblatta sp. "Wannag 3, Paupa New Guinea". These were being traded around as unidentified "Ectobiids" in the EU hobby, but after seeing some in person it's clear as day that they're another Tagaloblatta species, and distinct from the sp. "Okinawa" we have in culture. They also have the weird feature of both males and females randomly maturing into either microapterous or macroapterous adults.

I have them in a minimally ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coco fiber, topped in bark and eggcrates. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75-80F°, and am feeding them dog food.

Here are some pictures of a macroapterous and microapterous adult:

A very cute little species, with good feeder potential IMO. They've been breeding prolifically for me, and are now available on my For Sale page, if anyone's interested. 😁

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Next up we have Eublaberus posticus "French Guiana". This species is very common as a feeder roach here in the US, however until now we have not had the French Guiana locality, which has adults with much darker coloration than the other hobby stocks, and different pronotum markings too. Should make for a nice addition to the hobby here for those that want their feeders to look a little different. 

I've got my nymphs in a moderately ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of coco fiber substrate, topped with eggcrates. I'm feeding them dog food as the staple diet, keeping them on a 50/50 humidity gradient, at around 75F°.

Here are some pictures of large nymphs:

Hopefully they will mature soon, can't wait to see the adults in person!

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I also got a group of Nocticola sp. "Vienna Zoo", yet another parthenogenetic species which looks quite similar to sp. "Malaysia" and sp. "University Park, FL". Whether it is the same species as either of those strains (or both) has yet to be determined, and can probably only be done so via genetic analysis. 

I have them in a minimally ventilated enclosure with a thin layer of coconut fiber substrate, topped in leaf litter and eggcrates. I'm keeping them moist, and at around 75-80F°. Feeding them dog/fish food as the staple diet.

Here are some pictures of a couple adults:

They're breeding quite well for me already, though I shouldn't be too surprised, they are parthenogenetic after all... 😅

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Lastly, in terms of new stocks for US culture, I got a group of Eupolyphaga sinensis "Peking, China". Finally, locality stock of a hobby classic! They seem pretty similar to the old hobby stock, perhaps slightly smaller though.

I have them in a well ventilated enclosure with a couple inches of coconut fiber substrate, topped with leaf litter. I'm keeping them humid, at around 75F°, and am feeding them dog food and fruits.

Here are some pics of an adult pair:

Male

Female & Male

Female

Hopefully they'll breed well for me, finally have a mature female now, so keeping my fingers crossed! 🤞

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I also got groups of Decoralampra fulgencioi, Hebardina ugandana, and (accidentally) Dipteretrum hanstroemi, all of which are now breeding for me. Turns out with Decoralampra, they just need to be kept like, soaking wet, in order to breed consistently (they also seem to like a more chunky substrate). And Hebardina ugandana also like it quite humid, and much less ventilated than you would think an African Blattid would like (if kept dryer, the oothecae will not hatch). 

All in all, a very nice box with some very nice goodies inside, looking forward to seeing these species thrive in the US hobby!

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