Beetles, Cockroaches, Isopods, & Whipscorpion Updates!

Well, that Eleodes pupa I showed recently has just matured, and I was right in my assumption that these were Eleodes osculans! 😃

Here are some pictures of the somewhat freshly eclosed adult:

Another pupa eclosed recently as well, and I'm sure many more will follow! Mystery solved as to what species this batch of larvae were, now to see what my E.acuticaudus/E.grandicollis larvae turn into!

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I am very happy to announce that one of my Ischnoptera deropeltiformis "Ruby Red" nymphs FINALLY matured into an adult female, it seems like they've been taking forever to grow, certainly longer than I expected! It was definitely worth it though, the female is a beauty, with her dark, blood red wings!

Here are some pictures of her:

It was very hard to take decent pictures of her, and I still don't feel like I've fully captured her coloration right, but these were the best photos I could get. Hopefully a male will mature soon, so I can start breeding these beauties! 😁

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My Oniscus asellus "Mardi Gras Dalmatians" have been doing great, and have been breeding rather prolifically as well! I still am seeing a few normal offspring pop up every now and then, but by far the majority of the offspring they are producing are dalmatians!

Here are a few pictures I took last night of a group huddled together on a dead leaf:

I'm so glad this morph was pretty easy to isolate, the coloration seems to be quite variable between individuals, which is neat! I think a few different dalmatian morphs could possibly be isolated from this one strain, so I may do some experimenting in the future, we'll see!

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My Mastigoproctus giganteus has been doing very well so far, he/she is really not picky when it comes to food, unlike some of my other predators! I've fed him/her Parcoblatta americana females, Eleodes hispilabris larvae, deformed Embaphion adults, and just the other day, a Panchlora sp. "White" male that was on death's door, I even got some pictures of him/her eating it!

Here they are:

As you can see, he/she's really fattened up since arriving at my door! I really love this species, hopefully mine will continue to do well for me for years to come! 😊

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

PS: Wow, I just checked, and this is my 300th blog post! 😮 Happy 300th post everybody, can't believe I've written this many, these past few years have really flown by! 😄

New Invertebrates From Bugsincyberspace & Cody Will!!!

A few months ago I won a little contest Peter Clausen from Bugsincyberspace.com held on FaceBook for a free $30 order from his site, and I finally cashed it in for a sexed pair of Eleodes tribulus, a cute, fuzzy species of darkling beetle, and a vinegarroon, a unique arachnid I've been wanting forever!

Let's start off with the Eleodes tribulus. It is a small species in the subgenus Blapylis, males often have a small mucro, and both sexes are covered in hair. I only ordered a sexed pair, but Peter sent an extra female for free as well. 😁 Hopefully these will be relatively easy to rear, I've had mixed success with members of this subgenus, for the most part they have been pretty easy to breed though, just not all that prolific.

I have them in a small plastic container with coconut fiber as the substrate, with some dead leaves mixed in as well for extra oviposition impetus and/or larval food. I have cardboard pieces for hides and will be feeding them mostly chick feed. I will keep one area of the enclosure moist at all times and the rest dry.

Here are some pictures of them!

Male

Female

With any luck I should have little larvae within a month or two, will let you guys know how they do!

The other amazing invertebrate I got from Peter was a WC juvenile vinegarroon, Mastigoproctus giganteus, also known as a "whipscorpion". These are really neat and unique arachnids, they don't have any venom and while they do have pincers, they very rarely use them. Instead, to defend themselves they spray a vinegar like solution from their rear, using their "whip" appendage, the flagellum, to help aim the spray at their would-be predators.

The defensive solution is more mild than actual vinegar, and is basically harmless to humans. Sure, it would probably hurt a lot if it got in your eyes, but it likely wouldn't cause any long-term damage. That, coupled with the fact that these are actually pretty docile animals, makes them a great, harmless candidate for any bug enthusiast's collection! 😊

I am keeping mine in a gallon sized plastic container filled with a few inches of coconut fiber and sand, which I will be keeping moist. I have a bark slab in there for a hide, even though it'll likely construct it's own hide in the form of a burrow later on. I have been feeding it Parcoblatta americana nymphs and adult females, which it seems to like a lot. Will try larger prey items soon.

Anyway, here are some pictures of it while it is feeding on a P.americana female:

And the enclosure

I'm really thrilled to have one of these in my collection, they are such cool looking creatures, really hope mine does well for me and lives a nice, long life in my care!

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I also made a trade with Cody Will this week, I traded off the remainder of my Ergaula capucina for 10 Coniontis sp darkling beetles he caught in Cottonwood, California. I've been wanting to try and breed this genus again for a while now, so I am very glad to have some in my collection once again! This species is much larger than the ones I found here in ID, which is very nice, hopefully they'll be just as easy to breed!

I have them in a medium sized plastic container with coconut fiber and lots of dead leaf litter as the substrate, I put a small amount of leaf litter in the original mix, but then the beetles arrived and they were actually shipped in leaf litter, so I threw that in too, (after sterilizing it of course). Members of this tribe seem to really like leaf litter in their diet, (like Coelus and Eusattus), and while I haven't found it necessary to keeping Coniontis in the past, it certainly can't hurt to add some to their enclosure. 😄 I will keep most of the enclosure dry, with one moist area, and will feed them mostly chick feed.

Here are some pictures of them:

Love how large the pronotums of Coniontis are in comparison to the rest of their bodies, gives them such an unusual look, that and their cylindrical shape!

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