Bruneau Beetles & Baltimore Bioluminescence!

A few months back I went to Bruneau, ID, and collected some Eleodes longipilosa, and some E.armata. The latter are fairly widespread and common, and while I'm happy to have some again, the E.longipilosa are the real prize of this trip, as they are far more difficult for me to find. I came back with a nice group of adults and set them up on a purely sand substrate, as I have finally figured out from two past failed attempts to keep this species that they are psammophiles. And wouldn't you know it, not only are my adults all still alive (when in my past attempts at keeping this species on coir, they all died within a month or two of me keeping them), but I've got larvae from them! 😁 

I'm keeping them in a well ventilated gallon shoebox with a couple inches of sand substrate, which I'm keeping one third of humid, the rest dry. I'm keeping them at around 80-85F°, and am feeding them a staple diet of dog food.

Here are some pictures of an adult, and larvae:

The larvae of this species have a very thick and textured exoskeleton (especially when younger), which is unusual for this genus, but is probably an adaptation for their strictly sand dwelling lifestyle. Here's hoping I can rear some up to adulthood successfully! 

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On the topic of neat beetles I've failed to breed in the past, thanks to Jerimiah Lum, I was able to acquire a good breeding group of adult Photinus pyralis (Common Eastern Firefly) from Baltimore, Maryland, and unlike last year (when I received a group from Kyle), this time the females survived shipping! 😂  Not only that, but they laid TONS of eggs, all of which have hatched, and I ended up with around 100 larvae.

I had the adults set up in a well ventilated enclosure with about an inch of coconut fiber substrate, which I kept pretty moist at all times. The females readily oviposited in the substrate, and both they and the males fed on sugar water and freshly sliced fruits. They were kept at around 80-85F°. The adults lasted about a month, which I'm pretty sure is a normal life expectancy for this species.

The larvae had been doing OK in the same setup, but I noticed after a while that some were getting infected with some sort of fungal pathogen, perhaps a Trichoderma species... I've since moved them to a wet paper towel substrate, and they seem to be doing better, less fungal infections and I'm able to remove said infected individuals quickly. Thankfully, not only are these fully predatory, but they won't even eat their own dead, so the spread of pathogens like this is far slower, and it should be completely eradicated in a couple more weeks based on how few are succumbing to the fungus now. Especially considering their new rearing setup is far more sterile and easy to clean.

On that note though, there were tons of nematodes in their old substrate, and those honestly could have been stressing these larvae out and killing them, and the mold growing on their bodies could be mere scavenger mold. I also don't think the larvae loved the heat, so I'm also keeping them a bit cooler, around 73F°. And plan to give them a winter diapause as well.

Anyways, the remaining 50 or so larvae are being fed chopped up earthworms. I actually acquired a couple of snail species to use as feeders, but in addition to me not having bred either species in sufficient numbers to use as feeders yet, the few smashed snails I offered weren't as well received as the earthworms, so I think the Photinus prefer earthworms as their main food source.

The larvae have an unexpectedly big appetite, and it's fun to watch them swarm their prey items communally. 

Here are some pictures of an adult female, as well as pics of the larvae:

Adult female

Larvae

So cool to actually have a species of proper firefly in my collection, I'd love to collect more species and introduce Lampyrids into the hobby, since they aren't all that difficult to breed as long as you have access to the proper food sources for the larvae. 😊

Well, that does it for this oddball beetle post, thanks for reading, hope everyone enjoyed, and I'll see you all next time! 😉

New Dermestids, Showy Moth Flies, & Other Updates!

So a few months ago, I found a few dermestid beetles in my room. They looked kinda pretty, and were not a dermestid I've ever seen before, so I dumped them into a minimally ventilated deli cup with some crumpled up paper towel at the bottom, and dog food and dead inverts on top (mainly dead darkling larvae and roaches). They produced a decent amount of larvae, which have been thriving for the past couple months, mainly feeding on the dead insects (but also nibbling into the dog food a bit). Most of the larvae have now matured, and the adults are doing pretty well, and now will likely start producing larvae of their own soon.

However, until writing this post, I still had no idea what species this is, they're not Anthrenus, nor are they Dermestes. But now that I actually got around to taking pictures of my CB adults, I've spent some time comparing them to pictures on bugguide.net, and I'm now pretty sure they are a Trogoderma species. Not sure which one, there's 15 in the US, most of them look pretty dang similar, but at least I know what genus they belong to now.

Here are a couple crappy pictures of the adults:

Hopefully they'll continue to do well for me, I quite like their appearance, and may experiment with using them as cleaners here in the future. 🤔 Anyways, figured I'd share this little project with y'all!

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Now for a bummer update, unfortunately my firefly project failed. The few Photinus pyralis eggs I got did hatch, however the larvae would not eat dog food, prekilled and cut up mealworms, or live nematodes, and they died after about a week. So, definitely seems like cut up earthworms/snails are a must for that species, which is unfortunate, but oh well, at least now I know for sure. I'll have to wait to try breeding fireflies again until I have a good source of snails/worms for them.

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In more positive news, my Helleria brevicornis have been breeding very well, I counted over 60 babies in their enclosure a couple weeks ago! 😁 Most of my founding individuals are still alive and well, and should breed again next year after I give them a diapause this Fall/Winter.

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Lastly, there's an invertebrate I got off of Roachcrossing months ago that I never talked about on my blog before, mostly because I thought I killed them all shortly after acquiring them: the Showy Moth Fly, Lepiseodina conspicua.

Many people are probably familiar with moth flies, particularly Clogmia and Psychoda spp., which are common household "pests" that resemble moths, and breed in sink and bath/shower drains, feeding on various gunk that gets stuck in said drains. However, this particular species, L.conspicua, is less commonly sighted, and doesn't seem to infest houses, preferring to inhabit flooded treeholes and such in the wild. The common name "Showy Moth Fly" is well deserved, adults are black with tufts of white hairs covering their pronotums and margins of their wings.

These flies are fairly easy to breed, in general you want to set them up in a container with a layer of crushed, decaying leaf litter at the bottom, flooded with water, but preferably not completely submerged, you want some of the leaf litter to go above the waterline, both for larvae/pupae to reach the surface to breath, and for adults to land on I suppose. The larvae feed on the leaf litter a bit, but also really enjoy dog food being dropped into the water, they feed on the dog food once it soaks up water and essentially melts, and adults probably feed on that gunk too. However, it's VERY important that you provide them with good ventilation (preferably those mesh lids a lot of deli cups come with, since larvae can make their way up smooth surfaces and could escape out of basically any actual ventilation holes). If you don't give them ventilation, when the dog food rots in the water, the rotting process eats up most of the oxygen in the container, so if there's no ventilation you'll literally gas/suffocate your moth flies to death.

Now, unfortunately, I initially put my group of these L.conspicua in a container with next to no ventilation, and fed them dog food... So, a few days after I got them, I looked at their enclosure one day and saw that most of the larvae were dead and lifeless, and their enclosure stunk to high heaven. 🤢 However, there were still a few larvae that were alive, so I dumped the contents into a 16 oz deli cup with one of those mesh lids, which fixed the problem immediately.

Now I'm not sure how many larvae survived that initial mistake, but I estimate about a dozen. Over the next few months, I had adults come and go in pairs or trios, and honestly doubted I got any actual breeding pairs to mature at the same time, because I didn't really see any young larvae being produced. Oddly there's always been a few large larvae visible, even when it seemed like most of them should have been mature already... Well, apparently one of those small groups of adults in the past few months DID have a breeding pair, and did produce offspring without me noticing, because I checked their container last week, and there's at LEAST 25 adults in there... 😳😂 So yeah, they're thriving now, and I'm sure there's gonna be a TON of new larvae in there soon!

Here are some pictures of an adult (getting these pics was NOT easy):

Their white hairs turned kinda grey on camera, as did their black wings, as a result of the flash, this species looks so much more pretty in person. I'm glad these have recovered so phenomenally, just goes to show how hardy these flies are! 😄 Definitely a neat little group of flies, underrated in the hobby as neat little novelty pets (or even possible feeders).

EDIT 9/10/22: Welp, as it turns out, these are actually Setomima nitida, not Lepiseodina conspicua... 😅 Read this post for more info.

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

New Beetles & Isopods!

Got a few new inverts from my friends this month that I figured I'd group all together in this post. 😄

First off, Kyle from Roachcrossing sent me a special package, he went out and caught some fireflies for me! 😁 Namely a group of Photinus pyralis, and a female of a small Photinus species probably in the marginella/curtatus species complex. Sadly, all female fireflies and some of the males were DOA, however the pyralis females DID lay eggs in transit, which still look viable, so I'm currently incubating them in the moist paper towels they were laid in, and hope to have a decent starter group of larvae to work with. 🤞

I've always wanted to work with fireflies, they're so neat, and y'all know I love my bioluminescent inverts. 😄 Before now I've never even seen bioluminescent fireflies before, just the diurnal non-glowing species here in Idaho, so watching these glow has been a treat! 🥰

Technically they shouldn't be too hard to breed, but I've long been thrown off by the fact that larval fireflies mostly feed on snails and earthworms, which aren't the easiest food source to acquire where I live. However, I've come across anecdotal evidence from other hobbyists that larvae of at least some Lampyridae will feed on dog food in captivity, and I also found a picture of a Photuris larva eating a millipede on Bugguide, so they may be more opportunistic than I had thought. I'll try a variety of prekilled insects as well as dog food and see if they feed on any of that.

As for the adult males that survived, I've been offering them apple slices (which I've observed them feeding from). They seem to be doing nicely in their well ventilated, 32 oz deli cup with a thin layer of moist coconut fiber as the substrate. They'll only live a few weeks most likely, but watching them glow up at night is so cool. 😁

Here are some pictures of a couple of the live males, plus a comparison photo of a dead male and female:

Live Photinus pyralis males

Male P.pyralis Left, Female P.pyralis Right.

Note that the bioluminescent organ on the female is much smaller than the one on the male. The adult size isn't indicative of sex, as one of the other female pyralis that came in this group was smaller than most of the males.

Fingers crossed that my eggs hatch, would be amazing to start breeding fireflies in captivity! 😁 Lots of awesome and weird looking species/genera here in the US, would love to start introducing more Lampyridae into culture!

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Kyle also sent me a few Tenebs that he caught on the grounds of University of Michigan, which ended up being Xylopinus saperdoides. Sadly this species is in the tribe Cnodalonini, which are a huge pain in the butt to breed. 🙃 Not only do they require rotten wood for oviposition and for the larvae to feed on, but Cnodalonini larvae tend to also be quite cannibalistic and photosensitive, and are overall not very fun to rear.

So TBH I'm not even gonna try breeding the Xylopinus this year, but next year if they're still alive I may give them a proper breeding setup. Right now I'm just focused on trying to get my Iphthiminus to breed, I'm only gonna work on breeding one Cnodalonini at a time. 😅

Right now I've got my small group of adults in a well ventilated deli cup with some vertically slanted bark hides, and a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, which I'm keeping humid. I'm feeding them dog food and apples, and am keeping them at room temperature.

Here are some pics of them:

Neat little species for sure, too bad it's in a tribe that is a pain to breed. 😂

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I also got a small package from my buddy Brandon of Magnificent Beasts, containing these absolutely adorable isopods, Cristarmadillidium muricatum! 😁 These cuties are a relatively small, pale species of "roly-poly" type isopod, and are covered in small spines. They're kinda new to the US hobby right now, but will probably become relatively common in the next year or two I think. They're easy to keep and prolific as well, which is always nice. 😄

I've got my 8-9 half grown individuals set up in a well ventilated deli cup with a thin layer of coconut fiber as the substrate, with some leaf litter, bark pieces and sphagnum moss on top. I'm keeping them humid and at room temperature, and am offering dog food as the supplemental diet.

Here are some photos of the cuties:

I actually think one or two of them may be gravid already, so I might be getting babies soon! 😁 Fingers crossed these do well for me, such a cute little species!

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Last but not least, there were two Pyrophorus noctilucus adults and one large larva in Brandon's package too, which our friend Alan Jeon sent to Brandon to send to me, since they weren't doing that well for Alan.

The larva was a bit skinny looking on arrival (may have just molted recently), but has since plumped up and eaten a bunch in my care and is looking fine. 😁

I'm not exactly sure what happened to Alan's two adults, as they're both missing most of their legs and some segments from their remaining legs as if they were super old or something... But they're very clearly still young and active, since old adults lose their shiny luster as they age, and can't glow very brightly either. Whereas these adults are quite active, still glow well and overall look pretty young, other than the missing leg parts. In any case I think they'll still be useful for my breeding group, especially if they happen to be females (since males kinda gotta be able to run fast to catch up with mates lol), and I'll be pampering them for sure. 😊

Well, that's gonna do it for this post, big thanks to Alan, Brandon and Kyle for all these bugs! 😄 Hopefully everyone enjoyed, thanks for reading, stay safe, and I'll see you all next time! 😉