Ant Cricket Calamity...

Unfortunately my Myrmecophilus cf. manni died off about a month ago... Around September 18th or so, I noticed there were a lot of predatory mites in my Myrmecophilus jar, like a lot, which I assumed were eating the springtails and oribatid mites that had been plentiful in said jar for the last couple months... I saw a few of the cricket hatchlings through the sides of the jar, so I thought they were OK.  But September 23rd, I checked the jar, and there were predatory mites EVERYWHERE, crawling all over the walls of the jar and the substrate, and I didn't see any crickets... So I just checked the jar thoroughly, and yup, all my Myrmecophilus were dead... 😭 And the springtails in there had nearly been wiped out. 

I think what happened was the predatory mites went to town on the other microfauna in the jar, not the crickets themselves, and it was the tactile contact and swarming behavior of the predatory mites that stressed the Myrmecophilus out and killed them all... Because the ant cricket hatchlings are about the size of Compsodes hatchlings, and I never saw any predatory mites eating Compsodes hatchlings, so I think that prey that size is just too big for these particular mites.

In any case, my culture crashed, and predatory mites seem to blame, because they had their boom, and then my crickets crashed... 

Unfortunately, I've been looking for more the past couple weeks, but it seems the cooler Fall temps have sent most of the ants around here deep underground, so none of the spots I've seen Myrmecophilus before have active ant colonies under them anymore... Oh well, hopefully in the Spring I can catch more and try again.

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, hope everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

More Misc Updates!

Alrighty, got some more small updates for y'all, so let's jump in, starting with my Jumping Bristletails! (Meinertellidae sp. "ID"). 😄 Unfortunately that pun is the most lighthearted part of this update, which is rather gloomy...

So I ended up catching five of these things back in July, and unfortunately I only have one left... 😣 They just kept dying one after the other, and I'm honestly not sure why, they've been eating the food I've offered them, they have a moisture gradient, but seem to have no specific preference for their humidity levels, and I've been keeping them well ventilated and warm. Several of them molted, and none lost many scales at all, which was the main problem my group had back in 2014.
The only thing I can think of is that perhaps I kept this group in too small a container, and they actually killed each other due to territorial disputes... Other than that, I've got no clue why they died.

Unfortunately it doesn't seem like they bred or laid any eggs either, as I've not seen courting behaviors or any offspring, perhaps I only had males? That would lend more credibility to my territorial dispute theory... 🤔

Anyways, looks like this project was a big bust, maybe I'll try again one day, for now it looks like Bristletails will not be coming to the hobby anytime soon though... 😞

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On a lighter note, my Myrmecophilus cf. manni hatchlings are all doing well, don't have a headcount yet, but everytime I open their jar it feels like there's one or two more in there! 😄 They're also feeding well too, as most look quite plump now, whereas they hatch out very skinny.
I recently added some squares of corrugated cardboard to the enclosure for the nymphs to hide in, to give them more surface area, so far they seem to love them. 😁

Unfortunately I believe all the adults are dead, as I've not seen them in a while, however I've also not seen any adults outside, so they probably just died of old age TBH. So not the most long lived little things, or the most prolific, or the fastest growing, as these hatchlings seem to be taking their sweet time to molt... But cute has to count for something I guess! 😂

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I am happy to report that after refreshing their enclosure and replacing the substrate, my Bantua sp. "Namibia" have started giving birth again, found a new litter born last week! 😁

Here are a couple pics of the newborns, and a subadult female for the heck of it:

Hopefully there's more where those came from! 🤞

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My Conibius cf. seriatus pupae have been eclosing, and I finally snapped some pictures of some teneral adults!

Here's one an hour or two after eclosing

And here's one a few days after eclosing

So it only takes around a week or so for the pupae to eclose, pretty quick! Not surprising considering the larvae only took a few weeks to develop completely. 😄 If they were a little more prolific, they'd make for some great micro-feeders!

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Lastly, I wanted to give an update on my silverfish, Lepisma saccharina. I decided to move their jar downstairs where it's cooler, since I had another batch of babies hatch out, and it looks like most of them died during the recent heat wave we had... 😑The adults were all fine thankfully. The few nymphs that survived are doing great now that I've moved them to a cooler location though, and are actually molting and growing, finally! 😂 Now hopefully with the next batch of offspring my adults produce I can get the ball rolling on getting a proper colony established! 😅

Anyways, that's gonna do it for this jam packed update post, hope y'all enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you next time! 😉

Myrmecophilus Babies!!!

My Myrmecophilus cf. manni ant crickets bred for me!!! 😁 This marks a first for the hobby, I know several people who've attempted to culture species in this genus, but none were able to keep them alive long. Not only have mine all been doing pretty well, with no die offs as far as I can tell, but I just found hatchlings in their jar today! 😊

Unfortunately, I'm still not 100% sure what it is that they're eating, but I do find them on or near the apple slices and chick feed I offer them fairly often, I stopped feeding them artificial pollen about a month ago, and didn't see any changes after doing so. The substrate contains some rotten wood materials, which they could be nibbling on, but I'm unsure if that's a necessity or not. I'll have to experiment more in the future once my culture is big enough to split into two...

Might be worth noting that I've been keeping them on the cool side, trying to keep them from temps higher than 75F°, which I fear could be harmful to them since they spend their lives inside ant colonies where it's somewhat cool... Could be fine keeping them warmer though, suppose I'll experiment with that in the future too.

Anyways, here are some pictures, first of an adult, then of a hatchling, and finally one of their current setup. Unfortunately I was only able to get ventral shots of the hatchling against the side of the jar, I tried but I could not get a dorsal shot to save my life... 😂

Adult male, with small silver springtail to the left for scale.

The little baby! 😍

The enclosure.

I'm very glad I was able to breed these cuties, hopefully I can rear them up and get a sizeable colony established here soon! Definitely doesn't seem like they need ants to survive or breed, which is awesome! 😄

Well, that's gonna do it for this post everyone, thanks for reading, hope you all enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you next time! 😉

My New Myrmecophilus!

Today I found what I consider my best find all year, I present, the diminutive ant crickets, Myrmecophilus! 😁 These crickets live inside ant nests, and I've seen one or two of them here and there in several locations, but was never able to collect any of them, and never found large groups.

However, today while flipping over partially buried wooden planks, which had ant brood chambers underneath them, I saw a dozen or two of the things! Unfortunately I was only able to collect five of them, as they are very small and can jump pretty well, but I'm hoping out of five I've got a pair or two and can breed these little cuties! (I may go out and try to collect more tomorrow).

I've got them set up in a plastic jar with a cm of old, cheap potting soil (with no harmful additives) at the bottom, a bunch of small bark chips and chunks thrown on top, with more potting soil piled along the edge of half the enclosure, (which is where I'll be placing food most likely). The lid is moderately ventilated, and I plan on keeping them quite humid. Some small white springtails were accidentally collected along with them, and I threw in some small silvers and Oribatid mites for good measure.
For food I'll be offering leaf litter, chick feed, and fruits. Hopefully they'll eat something from that array of foods! 😅

Here are some hastily taken pictures of them, they are very small little crickets, the largest I collected were no more than 4mm long:

So cute right? ☺ I hope I can successfully breed these crickets, it would be awesome if they were as easy to breed as Compsodes or Myrmecoblatta roaches, which lead similar lives as these. 

Well, that's gonna do it for today's post, thanks for reading, I hope everyone enjoyed, stay safe, and I'll see you in the next post! 😉