Pretty Princisia, Moth Fly Surprise, & More!

Here are some short little updates on a few of my invertebrates. 😊

First off, my Princisia vanwaerebeki "Big/Black" are doing well, and I'm getting a lot of really pretty adults this generation. 😁 One male in particular really caught my eye the other week while doing maintenance, and I just had to get some pictures of him:

Ain't he a big beauty? 😍

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Now for an update on the Moth flies I talked about in one of my recent posts. Apparently they are NOT Lepiseodina conspicua, but rather Setomima nitida. 🤔 Kyle originally noticed the Setomima popping up in his Lepiseodina culture at around the F7 generation of the colony, and initially thought they were merely aberrant Lepiseodina. He's not sure how they got mixed in with them, and even weirder, he's ONLY finding Lepiseodina adults in his culture now. 

However the culture I have is entirely just these Setomima nitida, and I've never seen an actual Lepiseodina conspicua in the colony... 😅 Perhaps when I initially got the culture from Kyle, it was truly a mix of Lepiseodina and Setomima, but after the immediate mass die off they had (due to me not giving them any ventilation in their original setup), all the Lepiseodina conspicua died off, and the only survivors were a few hardy Setomima nitida larvae... 🤔 It's the only rational explanation I can think of. Oh well, they're still pretty IMO, and now I have actual showy moth flies to look forward to acquiring in the future. 😄

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Next up, my Neatus tenebrioides have produced quite a few larvae, and are now up for grabs on my For Sale Page. 😉 The larvae are quite cute and chonky, and boy are these things prolific! A very cool species that I see having great feeder potential!

Here are some pics of one of the larvae:

Cute right? 😄 So chubby, kinda remind me of lighter colored Alphitobius larvae.

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I'm happy to report that I finally started getting larvae from my Eleodes obscura glabriuscula again, apparently this species/subspecies only lays in late Summer and is very in tune with when that is, even in captivity. 😅 Hopefully this time I'll rear more than one CB adult up, especially now that I KNOW I'm actually getting larvae from them. 😆 

Here are a couple pictures of my two females (one WC, one CB):

Hopefully I can get a nice colony of these going and establish them in captivity, fingers crossed! 🤞

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Next up, I'm seeing eggs being laid from my next generation of Vonones ornata adults! 😁 These were giving me a bit of trouble compared to V.sayi when it came to housing multiple adults together, but it seems the only issue was food availability, particularly live prey availability. V.ornata are much more predatory and seem to require prey items at all times to keep the adults happy and stop them from killing each other... 😅 Thankfully springtails work just fine for them, and I've been dunking in tons to keep them happy and fed.

Here are a couple pictures I got of some of my adults:

Very cool Arachnids, so underrated in the hobby IMO!

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Lastly a short update on my Perisphaerus punctatus "Macao". They're doing fantastic, got lots of new adults, have had several new broods born in the last few months, overall they've been such a pleasant species to work with. 😊

Anyways, finally got some decent pictures of a group of this species rather than the few individual pictures I had, so without further adieu:

I'll never not love Perisphaerus, this had got to be one of my favorite roach genera ever. 😁

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

New Darklings from Kyle!

Got some cool new species of Tenebs from Kyle of Roachcrossing, which I'll be covering in today's post! 😁

First off, he sent me a couple dozen adult Neatus tenebrioides "Livonia, MI", a forest dwelling darkling that is closely related to and looks pretty similar to the commonly cultured Tenebrio. Similar to Tenebrio, they are easy to rear and breed in captivity, and prolific to boot.

I've got mine in a well ventilated deli cup with an inch or so of coconut fiber, which I'll maintain a 50/50 humidity gradient with (I think the larvae of this species might like more humidity than those of Tenebrio). They've got a couple wood and bark hides, and I'm feeding them dog/cat food. I'll be keeping them at room temperature.

Here are some pictures of the adults:

For being such a widespread species, very few people culture them, and I feel like they have great feeder potential personally. Not sure if a diapause is required for this locality, but I don't think so.

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Next up, Kyle also sent me a (mated) female Eleodes subnitens, from a strain that Orin McMonigle has been breeding since 2007. Such dedication to a single stock is very impressive, and I hope I can keep them going in my collection for years to come! 😁

I've got her set up in a well ventilated container, with an inch of coconut fiber substrate. I'm keeping a third of the enclosure humid, the rest dry, and am keeping her at around 75F°. I've given her a bit of eggcrate for a hide, and I'll be feeding her dog/cat food.

Here are some pictures of her:

The body shape of this species is rather unusual, quite rotund, with a weird little pucker at the end of the elytra. Hopefully this female lays lots of eggs for me! 🤞

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Lastly, Kyle sent me a (mated) adult female Eleodes spinipes ventricosa, also from stock maintained by Orin McMonigle, since 2006! This is the only other, far more finicky subspecies of E.spinipes in the US, differing from E.s.macrura in having deeper, more noticeable elytral punctation (also seems a bit skinnier than macrura).

I think Kyle mentioned getting pairs of both these and the subnitens off of Orin in a show months ago, but didn't have the time/space to set them up properly for optimal breeding, so he just sent the females to me to breed them instead. 😅

I've got this gal in a well ventilated setup with a coco fiber/sand mix. I've given her a toilet paper roll for a hide, and am keeping a third of the substrate humid, the rest dry. I'm keeping her at around 75F°, and will be offering dog/cat food as the staple diet.

Here are some pics of her:

Quite a large darkling, may actually be a bit longer than macrura (not as bulky though). I think I've seen her ovipositing already, which is fantastic! Adults of this species are quite prolific and produce many many offspring, however, getting the larvae to pupate correctly and emerge as healthy adults is the main hassle with this subspecies. Hopefully I can do it! 😅

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