Some New Invertebrates, and Some Random Updates Pt 2!

Today I got my order from Orin McMonigle, which contained four Orin's roach nymphs, Dorylaea orini! This species is very beautiful, and can be challenging to breed for some keepers. Hopefully I will be able to breed them with relative ease, as this species is amazing!

One of the first things I noticed, (besides their speed and unwillingness to stay in their new enclosure), was their long antenna, this species has very long antenna compared to other roach species I have kept, and are comparable to cave cricket antenna in terms of length. They are also pretty acrobatic, and will jump short distances to get from hide to hide, (or from hand to hand).

Here are some pictures I took of a nymph, these guys rarely stay still and I was not able to get many good pictures:

Here is what most of the photo-shoot was like:

I can't wait until these mature, though they are prettier as nymphs. Hopefully I will be able to breed this amazing species!

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I got some images of my New Arenivaga cf. genitalis, which are settling into their new enclosure nicely.
Here are the pics:

Hopefully I will be able to breed these guys as well as my A.tonkawa, not enough people are keeping this genus!

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Here's an update on my Ergaula capucina. They are doing good, and the hatchlings are slowly growing. Many of the original nymphs I got from Peter are maturing, and most of them are males.
Here are some pictures I took of them today:

Female

Male

This cool species seems to be doing well, and I hope they will stay in my collection for many years to come!

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Here are some small updates on my Byrsotria species.
One of my female B.fumigata gave birth the other day which was surprising! She must have been carrying sperm from a male she was with before I got her.

Another female looks like she may burst, however that female matured in my care and she was in with the Byrsotria sp. "Cuba", which means that if she has babies they are hybrids. Hopefully she is not actually gravid, and is just carrying an unfertile ootheca.
Here are some pictures of one of the females:

My Byrsotria sp. "Cuba" have been doing good as well, and my females have been giving birth! Many of them have matured, and it seems like more hatchlings are on their way.
Here are some pictures of one of the males:

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And lastly, here is an update on my Mycetophagus sp. Most of the larva have pupated and eclosed, and there are many new adults in the enclosure. I put several pieces of cat food in the cage, which then molded over. The mold was sprayed with water which turned it into one big mat of mold, which the beetles don't seem to mind at all.
Here are a couple of pictures of them eating some old moldy cat food:

They do not eat dead roach bodies by the way, so if used as a clean up crew it would only be for leftover grain based foods like dog or cat food.

Anyway, that's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I will see you all tomorrow! :)

My Hairy Fungus Beetles, Mycetophagus sp

Over a month ago I was walking down a trail and was looking under stones, and I found two small beetles. I had never seen anything like them, and wanted to get them identified, so I caught them and continued looking for other bugs.

When I got home I took some pictures of them, and prepared an enclosure for them. I filled it with less than an inch of coconut fiber, put a layer of dead leaves and a piece of rotten wood in as hides, and a piece of cat food in the enclosure.

After flipping through "A Field Guide to the Beetles of North America", I identified them as a Mycetophagus species. I uploaded some pictures to Bugguide.net and they agreed with my ID. What species exactly, I'm not sure, the one species I can find that has been recorded from Idaho looks nothing like my ones. Perhaps this represents a new species, who knows?

So after learning that they ate fungus, I tried putting some more cat food in the cage to get mold growing in the enclosure. It did get moldy, but there were no signs of them feeding on it. For about a month I kept them in that enclosure, twice I let the cage dry out due to forgetfulness, and I put a few more pieces of cat food in the enclosure as the old ones were rotting away. Nothing seemed to affect them, they were still alive after all that time, yet it did not seem like they were really eating anything.

A few days ago I glanced over at their enclosure and saw something pale moving around. I took a look in the enclosure and there were a couple dozen larva crawling around, of all different sizes. There was even a pupa in the cage! The substrate had dried out yet again, but it did not really seem to bother the larva at all. I moistened the substrate quickly, and took a look at the cat food in the cage. It had gotten rotten and brown, and most of it had been devoured by the larva. I put more cat food in, and the next day they were eating it. It would seem that these guys do not need fungus in their diet to develop, seeing as they ate fresh cat food as well as the rotten stuff.

Many of the larva have burrowed down and pupated, these guys grow really fast and soon I should have a bunch of adults in the enclosure! Anyway, here are some pictures I took of them today, I don't know if there are any other pictures of the larva of this genus on the internet.

Adult

Larva

Pre-pupal larva

Pupa

These guys seem to be really prolific and hardy, and seeing as they eat old cat food they may make a good clean-up crew, I'll have to test it out sometime soon.

Anyway, That's gonna be it for today, I hope you guys enjoyed this post, and I'll see you all next time! :)