Lotto Porcellio & Copper Darklings!

Junkai Package Series Pt 2/2

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Roaches aren't all Kai sent me, he also sent two other inverts, which I'll cover in this post! 😁 

Starting off, let's showcase the Porcellio scaber "Lotto Ticket" he sent me. This "morph" is actually a mix of different morphs all thrown together, with dalmatians, calicos, white outs, oranges and wild types all popping up, along with a plethora of other morphs as a result of the very mixed genetics. As you can imagine, large cultures are quite pretty to look at, and I'm hoping some interesting morphs will pop up that I can try to isolate myself. 😁

I've got them set up in a small container with a thin layer of moist coconut fiber as the substrate, leaf litter and bark hides on top, and am keeping them at room temps (around 73F°). For supplemental food I'll offer dog food.

Here are some pictures of a few of my individuals:

A "Calico" type individual

A "White Out" type individual

A mix of different individuals and morphs

Porcellio scaber are about as easy to breed as an isopod gets, so I'm sure I'll have a bunch of these in no time. 😄

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Last but not least, Kai sent me three Meracantha contracta larvae! Unfortunately one pupated and died during shipping... But the other two are looking pretty healthy, guess I'll just have to really hope I luck out and end up with a pair for breeding! 

I've kept and bred this species before, so feel free to check out my other posts on this species for pictures. I don't think pictures of my new two larvae are necessary, but I'll be sure to get pictures of the adults if/when they mature! 

Anyways, that's gonna do it for today, big thanks to Junkai for sending me this package! He and a few other bug peeps are running a Discord server called Bug Town, a lot of cool hobbyists on there, and I'm on there too, so if any of y'all wanna chat with other hobbyists in a fun environment, check it out! 😁 Thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, and I'll see you all in the next post! 😉

Tenebrionid Success Updates!

I have had some nice successes with many of my Tenebrionids lately, so here's a new post just to highlight those successes! 😁

My Coniontis sp. "CA" have laid many eggs since I first got them, and I now have lots of larva tunneling around the enclosure! They seem to grow pretty fast, I was surprised at how large some of them were when I dug around the cage today looking for larvae to photograph!

Here are a couple half decent pictures of one of the larvae, (you'd be surprised at how much trouble I had to go through just to get these pictures):

The smaller Coniontis sp that I collected myself a little while ago have also produced eggs for me, and there are now several small larvae in their enclosure as well! Unfortunately they were too small for me to take any decent pictures of them, once they get bigger I'll try and snap some photos.

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The batch of Eleodes larvae that I got last month from Brandon Woo that are either E.acuticaudus or E.osculans have all pupated now! I separated a few into their own deli cups, but the majority are still inside the medium sized tupperware I housed them all in, they all dug to the bottom and constructed their own pupal cells at pretty much the same time.

I'm very lucky that they all grew at the same rate and decided to pupate all at once, otherwise the pupae would likely be cannibalized, not to mention many of the pupal cells would be collapsed by the tunneling activities of other larvae.

Anyway, considering their size, I'm almost 100% sure they are Eleodes osculans, will know for sure once some of the pupae eclose!

Here is a picture of one of the pupae that I had isolated into it's own deli cup:

Hopefully I'll end up with a lot of adults in a few weeks!

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I finally found larvae in my Eleodes tribulus container last month, this species seems to appreciate a rather sandy substrate for egg laying, and they don't seem to be terribly prolific either. The adults also really need good ventilation or else they get sluggish.

Here is a picture of one of the larvae:

In other Eleodes larvae related news, I now have a ton of Eleodes rileyi larvae! They seem very long and wiry compared to other Eleodes I've seen, unfortunately they are too small right now for me to get good pictures of them. This species is a lot more prolific than I expected, hopefully the larvae will turn out to be easy to rear!

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I have been isolating quite a few of my Embaphion cf. contusum larvae for pupation over the last month or so, and now I have quite a few new adults! This species has proven to be just as easy to breed as Embaphion muricatum, if not more so! The pupal survival rate is pretty high, and the percentage of "perfect" adults that eclose seems to be a little higher than that of E.muricatum.

Here are pictures of some of the fresh adults:

So glad this species has done well for me!

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Lastly, let's talk about my Meracantha contracta. Sadly, my female passed away the other day, this species doesn't live that long as adults, only a few months, and considering the extent of the injuries my female had, I'm honestly surprised she made it this long! Luckily she left me with a lot of larvae, she was way more prolific than I thought females of this species were supposed to be!

The larvae are doing very well on a diet of just chick feed and a little bit of leaf litter, (they don't really love the latter), so no rotten wood seems to be needed to rear this species, which is great! Some of the larvae are about half grown now I'd say, or very close to half grown at least!

Here are some pictures of a few of the larvae:

The coloration of the larvae seems to be pretty variable at this stage, some are sort of an orange tan color, while others have more of a rich chocolate brown coloration.

Overall it seems like most of my Tenebrionid species are doing very well right now, which pleases me greatly! That's gonna do it for today's post everyone, I hope you all enjoyed, will see you again soon! 😉

Eurycotis, Meracantha & Panchlora Updates!!

My Eurycotis improcera nymphs are growing nicely, I think I'll have adults in a couple months or so, very excited!! I took some pictures of a few of the nymphs the other day, and they are better than the pics I've previously taken of this species, so I thought I'd share them here. 🙂

You can really see the nice coloration of the nymphs in these pictures, I love their striped legs!

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In a recent post, I said that I thought only had one female Panchlora sp. "White' left, and that the rest were males. Well I'm happy to say that I was wrong, after digging around the enclosure and sexing the nymphs properly, I found out that two of the "male" nymphs I had were actually females that were one or two molts behind my other female. 😁

And that folks, is why no one should ever sex roach nymphs based of size alone! (which is what I was doing, since they all seemed to be growing at the same rate, and my other female is quite a bit larger than the other two, it was a novice move on my part). Anyway, I feel a lot better about the future of this species in my collection now, I can't wait until they all mature!

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So, I suppose I never actually said anything here on the blog, but the eggs that my Meracantha contracta female laid all hatched, and I've got quite a few larvae now! 😊 They have been growing, slowly but surely, and now some of them have gotten to the size where I can take some pictures of them!

Here are some pictures of one of the larger larvae:

Surprisingly, they are doing pretty well on a substrate of just coconut fiber with a little bit of leaf litter mixed in, (which they don't seem to eat as fast as other Tenebrionids I've kept). I thought the larvae of this species would need rotten wood in their diet to survive and grow, and was prepared to move them to a rotten wood substrate should they start dying off, but so far it doesn't seem to be a necessity for them! Of course that could change as they get older, they are still rather small right now, so we'll see...

Anyway, that is going to do it for this post, I hope everyone enjoyed, will see you all next time! 😉

Meracantha & Alobates Eggs!!!

Well, I was checking up on my Meracantha contracta enclosure last week, and I went to take out the old cat food in there that had started to mold, and when I lifted it up off the substrate, I ended pulling some coconut fiber up along with the food, and I noticed some small, white, spherical objects in it... YUP, eggs, nice, healthy Tenebrionid eggs! 😁

I looked around the enclosure and found many others in different areas, some have even been laid up against the enclosure wall, my female has been a busy girl! Now I just gotta hope they'll hatch and that the larvae won't be too hard to rear!

I didn't get any pictures of them, didn't want to dig any up and disturb them, but will keep you guys updated on their development, and will try to get some pictures of the larvae if/when the eggs hatch!

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A few days ago I went to go do enclosure maintenance on my Alobates pensylvanicus cage, take out their old food and replace it, (they only seem to like cat food BTW, they haven't touched the mealworm pupae I offered them), mist them, and check up on the beetles themselves. So I went and lifted up the largest bark slab in the enclosure, which was placed on top of the substrate and a patch of sphagnum moss, and was very surprised to find a good sized cluster of eggs had been laid on the underside of the bark, as well as on top of the moss the bark was resting on! 😄

I was definitely not expecting them to lay their eggs directly on the bark, I thought they would lay them inside of the actual substrate, but really, it makes way more sense that they would lay them on the bark. This species is normally found under bark on dead trees, in between the bark and the actual wood, so that has to be where they lay their eggs in the wild, instead of chewing into the wood and depositing the eggs there. Once the larvae hatch, then they burrow into the wood. So that's probably why they didn't lay the eggs in the substrate, like most other darkling beetles I've kept.

Here are a couple pictures of the main egg cluster:

Really can't wait until the eggs hatch, hopefully the larvae aren't too difficult to rear! If they are truly predatory, I may end up having to separate them and keep them each in their own deli cups, would be nice if they just ate wood and cat food though, and not each other.

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

Drymaplaneta & a Couple Small Beetle Updates

So far my Drymaplaneta semivitta have been doing great in their new enclosure, and have been growing nicely as well! It really seems like they'll be making it to adulthood, I'm pretty sure some of them are only 3-4 molts away from maturity! 😁 We'll see though, we'll see...

Here are some pictures I took of them the other day:

The nymphs are already slowly starting to gain patterning similar to those of the adults! 😊 Really hope I'll be successful breeding these, would be great to get these to other US breeders and really establish them in the hobby here!

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Wanted to give a big thanks to AlexW on the Beetle Forum for identifying my "mystery larva" from my last post as the obscure Zenoa picea! It is the only member of it's family in the US, the adults are apparently very short lived, and the larvae dwell in really rotten wood, so hopefully the substrate I gave mine will work perfectly to rear it to adulthood!

Sadly, my male Meracantha contracta died the other day, however the female is still going strong, and there are some signs of the substrate being disturbed, so it appears that she may be ovipositing, we'll see!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, will see you all next time! 🙂

Some New Beetles!!

The other day I received a package from Tyler Hedlund, (known as Pannaking22 on the forums and owner of this blog), as part of a trade we are doing! Received lots of cool beetle species, that I will hopefully be successful in breeding!

First, let's start off with the Tenebrionids!

I got 4 Alobates pensylvanicus from Tyler, a semi-predatory species of darkling beetle closely related to Coelocnemis, one of my favorite Tenebrionid genera. These guys are commonly found under bark on dead logs in the Eastern US, and both the adults and larvae are supposedly carnivorous on other invertebrates in the wild, however, the few people who have kept this species have had no problems getting them to eat dog/cat food in captivity.

I have them in a medium sized plastic container with rotten hardwood chunks, dead leaves, and fermented Traeger sawdust as the substrate, and have bark and wood pieces in there for hides. I will be feeding them dog food, and will also offer mealworm pupae for them as well, and maybe other soft bodied prey, if they like the pupae that is.

Here are some pictures of them:

Really hope I can get mine to breed and lay eggs, I don't think anyone has ever gotten this species to oviposit in captivity!

He also sent an adult of the small, but beautiful species, Platydema ellipticum! It probably isn't a gravid female, and this species is associated with shelf fungi as larvae I believe, so I almost certainly won't be breeding this species. The best I can do is keep it in a enclosure with decent ventilation, moist substrate with bark and leaf litter, feed it dog food and hope it lives a nice, normal life in my care. 🙂

Here are a few pictures of it:

Really nice little species, pretty colorful for a darkling beetle!

Speaking of colorful Tenebs, while they may look black at first, Meracantha contracta have a beautiful copper sheen that makes them one of the prettiest species native to the US! 😁 Tyler sent me a sexed pair of this beautiful species, I am very happy to finally have some, and I really hope I can breed them!

Unfortunately, they were shipped in the same container as the Alobates, and while Tyler had kept Alobates with other Tenebrionid species before with no problems, apparently their predatory side really comes out when being shipped. Since they were in such close quarters with these beauties, without any other source of protein available, they chewed off most of the Meracantha's legs. 😢 Luckily, they weren't killed, but they are sort of crippled now, which sucks.

I once had an Eleodes male that had every single leg bitten down to small nubs, but he still was able to hobble over to the food and water I offered him, and lived for quite a while in that condition! Meracantha seem to stress out more easily than Eleodes though, so I'm not sure how well they'll adapt to this situation.

The male has his left front and hind legs fully intact, but his left middle leg and all of his right legs have been bitten down to nubs. Luckily the female is a lot less damaged than the male, both her hind legs are intact, and one of her middle legs only has the tibia missing, but the other middle leg has been bitten in half, one of her front legs is missing and the other has is a little over half intact. The main thing I'm worried about is that many female Tenebrionids like to burrow before ovipositing, however this female will probably not be able to burrow much since she's lost proper use of her front legs, so unless she is content with just ovipositing directly into the upper layers of the substrate, she may not produce any offspring at all.

I am keeping them in a small plastic container with moist coconut fiber and crumbled up dead leaves as the substrate, and have bark pieces and dead leaves on top for hides. I will be keeping them fairly humid, and will feed them mostly dog food.

Here are some pictures of them:

So far they seem fairly active and are eating, so that's great, hopefully the female will lay some eggs for me and I can get some larvae of this amazing species! 😊

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Now, let's get to the misc larvae he sent!

First, we have this one Elaterid larva, that almost looks like a small Alaus grub, but definitely isn't. I have it in a small deli cup with rotten wood chunks, dead leaves, and fermented Traeger sawdust as the substrate, in addition to the wood I will also be feeding it dog food.

Here are a couple pictures of it:

I also received two of these other Elaterid larvae, which look more like your typical wireworms. I have them in their own deli cups as well, with rotten wood chunks, dead leaves and fermented Traeger sawdust as the substrate, and in addition to the wood I will be feeding them dog food.

Here are a couple pics of one of them:

Would be pretty cool if I ended up having a sexed pair of this species, love how the larvae look!

Lastly, he sent this one really weird looking beetle larva, I honestly have no idea what it is beyond that, but I do know it's neither a Tenebrionid or an Elaterid. I have it in it's own deli cup with rotten wood chunks, dead leaves and fermented sawdust as the substrate, and will offer it dog food as well, have no idea if it will eat any though.

Here are some pictures of it:

Really interested to see what it ends up maturing into, hopefully it'll do well in my care and pupate!

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today guys, I hope you all enjoyed this post, will see you soon! 🙂